Ok, so somebody help me figure out where I screwed up. I'm having trouble figuring out the math on this one, as well. Forgive the book . . .
I tried the method of pulling the queen to prevent swarming. I pulled her and four frames from a 20-frame double-deep hive on March 31. I busted the remaining 16 frames down to two 8-frame boxes because my back is getting too old for 10-frame deep boxes.
There were three or four frames of un-drawn foundation remaining from a frame switch last fall. Now, one thing to note is that I am certain there were no swarm cells or supercedure cells on March 31. I started going through the hive frame by frame. I pulled a couple of honey frames and couple of brood frames and moved them over to another box about 15 feet away. I started going through the remaining frames looking for the queen. I went through the whole hive frame by frame searching and could not find her. I went back through a second time frame by frame searching and did not find her. I studied every inch of 16 frames. No queen cells, and I couldn't find the queen. Now I've been in this hive probably close to 45 minutes and the bees are getting pretty agitated. They are so loud and agitated that I'm thinking "I had to have missed her on one of the frames that I pulled for the split." I walk 15 feet over to the other box and they are all calm as can be, so I'm certain she's got to be on one of those frames. I start looking them over again and, sure enough, I find her. All is well, me thinks. I close the split up, put the main hive back together, throw a super of 8 medium foundations on top of the two deeps, and I'm on my way happy as a lark.
April 21, the wife calls me at work:
"You've got a swarm of bees up a tree, but you aren't going to be able to get them. They are too high."
"What???", says I. "No way! I only had two hives at the home yard strong enough to swarm and I pulled the queen from both of 'em!""Well, you got bees up a tree . . ."
I head home to check it out and, sure enough, a nice swarm about 40 feet up the tree. I'm thinking, "How did this happen? Are they really my bees?" I put five different boxes with drawn comb around the yard hoping they will find one and move in. No luck. I get home from work that evening and they are gone.
So today, at lunch, I have time to check out the "suspect" hive. It was the strongest of the four at the home yard, so I'm thinking if one swarmed it had to be this one. Open it up and it is slam-full of swarm cells. Some hatched, some not. I heard piping, but never did see a queen. I pulled one frame of un-hatched swarm cells and made another split, and left one frame of cells in case I'm mistaken about the piping.
Now, here is my confusion . . .
1) If I pulled the queen, and they still had frames with room for expansion, why'd they make swarm cells?
2) I guess they could have already made up their mind to swarm the very day that I did the split, but the math doesn't add up. If I pulled the queen on March 31, how do I still have un-hatched swarm cells on April 22? Now, lest you think there was a second queen that I missed on March 31, a few more facts . . . this hive has
no eggs, no open brood, and very little capped brood. There's been no laying queen in there since March 31. Oh, and the three or four deep frames of foundation from March 31 are drawn and packed with pollen & nectar, and 6 of the 8 medium frames of the super that I added on March 31 are drawn and full of nectar.
Somebody educate me.
