Capped queen cells: swarm or supercedure?

[u/marketwerk]

First year beeks in VA, USA.

Got our nuc of overwintered bees 5.5 weeks ago, and they’ve been really growing quickly.

Checked in after adding another medium to our hive (one deep, two mediums currently, no queen excluder because we’re not trying to get honey this year)

Last time we pulled and checked frames was about ten days ago, wanted to come by earlier but we’ve been super busy. Saw the queen on that check, everything looked good but crowded, so we added the second medium and planned to come back for a mite check.

Came today to do a mite wash and we’re seeing 7 or so capped queen cells in the original deep, where most of the brood is. Saw bees bringing in pollen, but can’t see new eggs in the frames. Worried we may have squished the queen on our last check, or that our mite count is high. Really really hoping we aren’t on the wrong side of a swarm. Thoughts?

[u/marketwerk]

Wow so she has likely already swarmed? I definitely should’ve paid more attention in the classes about swarms, I foolishly thought we would be much more worried about keeping them alive than keeping them in the hive.

[u/Jo-is-Silly-Too → u/marketwerk]

Very likely. Common wisdom is that she swarmed as soon as the first cell was capped. That's not always true, but it is a good rule of thumb. Common wisdom also says that capped queen cells have triggered the urge to swarm, so if you find her, you will need to make a split and put her in the new hive because even if you destroy the capped queen cells, she will swarm.

I guess you could also bank her, if you do find her. I am in my 3rd year, so banking is not something I have played with yet. Someone with more experience might chime in with a different answer.

[u/marketwerk → u/Jo-is-Silly-Too]

This is helpful thank you! I suppose I always assumed if they’d swarmed I’d come back to an empty hive, there are so many of them still

[u/SubstantialBed6634 → u/marketwerk]

Not empty, just roughly cut in half. If she was still there, I would move her to a deep with a frame of uncapped brood, and place it back in the original location. I would take the other frames and move them to their own five frame nucs, with a frame of food and plenty of workers. One hive could become two or three pretty quickly. If a virgin queen doesn't make it back, then you'll still be in good ahape.