If you overfeed, they will make QCs. Who knew? - mite strategy?

[JojoBeeBoy]

So in an effort to expand I had some packages I set on a few frames of drawn comb. After a few weeks without drawing much I read something here that I really hadn't considered. They won't draw comb until they need it. I overfed everyone and made a few splits and mating nucs, etc. Then it rained for a week and I got busy with work and now just about every hive has 10-12 swarm cells.

One queen I didn't want to propagate made off with a small swarm. Another one I caught, and yesterday I moved one of the better mamas into her own nuc with a couple of frames of resources so she would think she swarmed. Is this what everyone else does? Several of these are a deep and medium with no excluder. I don't really see being able to destroy every queen cell. I run plastic on wood frames with the corners popped out and they are liking those corners for queen cells.

I just put apivar strips in all the boxes (not the nucs yet) so I thought maybe moving the queens would give a brood break in these and therefore a better chance at getting to mites. Thoughts? Advice?

[TheHoneyPump]

Not knowing what others preference is ... wrt the popped out corners of the foundation sheets.  As FYI, I put those openings at the top.

Whenever a swarm is imminent, best mitigation is to nuc it out completely. 
OR, Split as ....
1. move the old queen into a separate hive or nuc with primarily mature capped emerging brood.
2. After queen is moved; shake all bees off of every frame and destroy all queen cells except 1 to 3 that are on same frame in very close proximity.  Add empty combs(supers) for honey and nectar workspace. 

[JojoBeeBoy]

Thanks HP! As a followup, do you leave the popouts at the top of the plastic foundation just so they don't have to go over the wood? .... to keep swarm cells out of the bottom corners? .... or ???

I noticed the queen likes to use these openings to get to the shady side when I'm inspecting a frame.

I have at least one hive I'll split per your instructions later this morning, maybe two. Hope they had plans to leave tomorrow and not today. Also hope all you guys and gals (particularly US) enjoy the 4th tomorrow! 

[Nock]

I pop most of the corners on mine but I?ve never ran into any QCs there. But I could see why they would. Interesting. Thanks for bringing that up.

[Robo]

Like HP I also put the notches up.   Moving the queen into to nuc is the best approach to break the swarming instinct.  If you remove or destroy the queen cells and leave the queen in the hive they will just continue to build QCs and attempt to swarm.

[TheHoneyPump]

Thanks HP! As a followup, do you leave the popouts at the top of the plastic foundation just so they don't have to go over the wood? .... to keep swarm cells out of the bottom corners? .... or ???

Usually I do not pop those out at all, leaving as full sheet.  If I do pop-em, I put the holes at the top as I think it may be helpful for the small clusters to move across frames, particularly in winter.

[JojoBeeBoy]

Usually I do not pop those out at all, leaving as full sheet.  If I do pop-em, I put the holes at the top as I think it may be helpful for the small clusters to move across frames, particularly in winter.

Makes sense. I've had several colonies die out with a small cluster and 20 pounds of honey a few inches away. May have had other issues, but definitely had resources. Thanks