I went through a strong overwintered colony last night and cut out over 20 swarm cells. This turn in weather will bring out swarming.
After I cut swarm cells I looked for eggs and saw none. There was brood in larvae and capped stages. The queen must have stopped laying and a swarm was going to happen today. I don't think they swarmed because there was a large amount of field bees coming and going. So to totally stop a possible swarm, I switched the location of the hive with a weaker colony. Moved strong hive to weak hive location and weak hive to strong hive location. The field bees fly out and go back to where they think they live. Now the strong hive has lost most of their field bees and the weak hives gets a huge increase in field bees, and I think the swarm has been averted. I will check the strong hive again in five days to see if the queen has started to lay again.
Look today for swarm cells in strong overwintered colonies or your bees will be up in a tree.
