Here are two swarm cells, two of a dozen or so that I found in one of my hives about five days ago.
Swarm cells cut from a swarmed hived. (May 30, 2012.)
The swarm cells were found at the bottom edge of the frames in the top box of the hive. I found a similar scene in another hive a day later and took some swarm prevention measures that I’ll describe in detail as soon as I have the time. Many momentous events have occurred. Changes are on the way.
they look like peanuts!
Is this the same hive that swarmed?
It’s too bad it went down that way. You can’t control bees, though. Are their ordinances about beekeeping in your city? Could neighbors really shut you down? They can’t where I live, because there is an ordinance allowing them. What if there was a wild swarm passing through? It happens all the time in our neighborhood.
You could always split your hives in the spring, so they would think they’ve swarmed — before they begin making their own plans –, then recombine them later in the nectar flow.
Wow, a dozen swarm cells? Some restless girls you have there. Do they have enough room?
I was just having this thought 2 days ago when I opened up the hive and finding a couple of queen cells. I moved one cell over and 2 full frames to a hive we are starting and put in some empty ones but there were more in the first hive, my thought was they were requeening but I don’t know . would be a first for me. now I am worried. I put on an empty super. they have 2 full and 1/2 full.
We plan to move our bees to a rural location tonight. The past couple weeks = beekeeping hell. Just about everything bad that could possibly happen has happened — and being in an urban environment with unpleasant neighbours makes all of it 100 times more stressful.
I’ll say more when I come up for air in a couple weeks.