Hot Weather - Hot For Swarms

It is supposed to be 85 degrees on Friday. If you have a strong overwintered colony that has not been divided, the hot weather will more than likely trigger swarming behavior in these strong hives. Looking for swarm cells every seven days and removing them before they are capped is swarm control. When the bees cap a swarm cell, the hive usually swarms.
Going into a colony that has capped swarm cells, a beekeeper will see a large numbers of bees still in the hive. The beekeeper may think that the hive has not swarmed. But the fact is, they did swarm and the queen and foragers have left. There will be no eggs and no young larvae in the hive. Removing the swarm cells and installing a new queen is the best way for a hive to quickly recover.

This hive is seriously overcrowded. The beekeeper did a split before the hive swarmed.  Photo by one of my customers.