Swarm Cell

Scary.

I opened the hive today, one week after adding the second super.  Now the bees have two levels in which to build, and I expected that the added space arrived just in time for the bustling hive.  When I lifted off the inner cover, I noticed that the upper deep was without any comb, but had a few hundred wandering bees.  At first, I was not alarmed.

As I made my way through the inspection of the lower super, frame by frame, I noticed that all but one frame had been drawn out.  There are large chunks of capped honey, there are cells of emerging bees and sells with milky white larva.  I saw the queen on one of the newest frames.  All seemed well - but why hadn't they moved upstairs yet?

Then I saw something that alarmed me - a swarm cell.  Typically, hives do not swarm in their first season, but Italian bees are predisposed to swarming and I am afraid that I added the second super too late.  I'm concerned that they haven't had enough time to build in the second super, and now they are faced with no space for the queen to lay eggs, and no time to build that space.  They could possibly swarm.

A swarm will occur when the hive is crowded - half of the team leaving with the old queen and moving to a nearby tree branch until they can locate a new place to live.  However, they will not abandon the whole hive without leaving a new queen.  Hence the swarm cells.  Built on the lower part of a frame, a swarm cell is a peanut shaped pod, much larger than any of the other cells.  Inside, a larger larva is forming - being fed special nutrients to potentially become a queen.  Several such cells will be made, then the hatched queens must fight until one remains, and will officially take on the role of the new queen.

I had to squash the one I saw, but now, in hindsight, I have convinced myself that I missed seeing a slew of others.  I hope that over this week they can make more space in the second super so that I don't return from a week's vacation to find a decimated, empty, unprepared hive.  (Or hear of any neighbors spraying a freak cluster of bees with bug spray should they alight in someone's front yard... my babies!)