I have a BOOMING Russian/Carniolan hive that has already issued three swarms (captured them all, thankfully). After the third swarm, I split this colony in half, each split getting one deep hive body from the parent colony. Both splits have a TON of bees and one would be hard-pressed to tell that this colony issued three decent sized swarms and had been split.
Upon inspection of the splits, I found multiple capped swarm cells on the frame bottoms, but no supercedure cells. There is also a fair amount of capped brood but no eggs that I could see in either split, therefore I believe both splits to be queenless. I have inserted at least one empty frame into the brood nest of each split to give the new queens room to lay immediately. I have also added one medium super of foundation above each split to get the combs drawn and allow a bit more room for all these bees.
I am wondering if the emerging virgin queens will leave their respective split in a swarm rather than return after mating? Having been queenless for over a week and having some room for the new queen to lay I would think such a scenario would favor a new queen staying rather than leaving, no? I guess I'm wondering if swarm cells, queen cells on frame bottoms, yield virgin queens that always swarm, regardless of conditions within the colony?
Thanks,
Justin