Hello!
New beekeeper here in Boston. New nuc installed just over one month ago. This is our second inspection. 5 drawn out frames from the original nuc, 5 empty wooden frames they have just begun to draw out. My question is, are these supercedure or swarm cells? I’m confused because they’re at the bottom of establish comb but in the middle of the frame, but they have plenty of space in this brood box still, given the frames are still being drawn out. The queen is present and laying. What should we do with the cells if they’re supercedure? Any help is appreciated, want to make sure we’re learning and doing this responsibly! Thanks!
Hey Sammy, welcome! Those do look like swarm cells to me. It’s possible they were getting ready to swarm prior to being split for the nuc, and they kept going after install. At a certain point, adding space won’t change their course. I’m a bit south of you in PA and the nectar flow this spring has been gonzo here (tapering off now), and a few weeks ago I was going gonzo trying to stay on top of swarming! 
What I would do now is get hold of some extra equipment and split the colony. The existing queen on at least one frame of open worker brood covered with nurse bees should go in a new box, in a spot on your property as far away as is practical. Lean a leafy branch over the entrance so it creates an obstacle to exiting workers so they reorient to the new location, which (usually) reduces the chance they will drift back to the original hive. In your original hive, destroy all but the best 3 queen cells, and have at least one frame of mostly capped worker brood. That way, those bees will be a new force of nurses ready to take care of the next queen’s brood.
Several of those queen cells look ready to pop, so in maybe 10 or so days there should be a new laying queen in there. More if there’s bad flying weather. Wait to check on them til then so as not to disturb her while she’s newly emerged or coming and going.
If the new queen fails to mate or doesn’t return and the original colony ends up queenless, you can combine them back with the split. Same thing if they don’t end up building out their space by fall.
I know you probably didn’t plan on having more than one colony as a newbeek! I definitely did not at that time either, but found later that having two is actually better for learning as well as for keeping things stable.
Please ask as many questions as you have - there are a lot of knowledgeable folks here, and everyone is friendly and supportive 
2 Likes
Weird thing and I’m confused haha. Went to split today and this is what that same frame looked like, so we opted to leave them. I hope they don’t swarm! Queen was present and laying on new comb. This is a confusing hobby/new endeavor lol
Hi Sam, welcome to the forum.
I wasn’t sure how to answer your question yesterday, however it is now obvious that the colony did have it in their mind to swarm, before aborting the idea, as evident by the large openings of the queen cells
I sometimes see those cells, which indicates the same thing. There might be a change in the weather, or a sudden drop in pollen & nectar coming in which can cause a colony to abort the idea of swarming.
The weather where I am about 300 miles south of Boston where @SammyBee is has definitely changed to hot and dry over the past week. Perhaps it’s the same up there, eh Sam? I knew that workers will chew out and discard mature pupae but for whatever reason didn’t imagine them doing that with queen cells too! But it makes sense.
1 Like