Swarmed or superceding?

[Howsoonisnow]

Condition of hive:

1. 3 sealed Q cells on 2 different frames at bottom of comb.
2. 3 day old eggs seen (there may be younger but I can't ever see them).
3. No discernible loss of bees.
4. Brood box potentially congested. There's a super on with drawn comb but it has been little used.

Questions:

1. Have they swarmed or are they superceding again? I'm fairly confident that they superceded a few weeks ago as I also left a sealed queen cell then with eggs seen.

2. What is the best way to proceed from here?

Thanks

 

[tidymeup]

I was of the opinion that when making cella for superseding they were towards the top or middle of a frame and were more pronounced than swarm cells.

 

[Poly Hive]

It is unlikely they are superceeding a 2nd time however never say never.

I would treat it as an artificial swarm situation, then see how the bees progress in the queen right part and see if they still produce cells, in which case buy in a queen or let them raise one.

PH

 

[Howsoonisnow]

A second inspection today revealed that one of the supposedly sealed Q cells was broken down at the rear so the queen had killed that cell.

I performed an artificial swarm so I'll see how they develop.

If you see eggs and sealed Q cells, what should you be thinking?

 

[sawdstmakr]

You Might try taking out 2 frames of brood with bees on it and putting them above the excluder. Replace them with drawn frames. This is called checker boarding. Makes the bees think they have plenty of room.