Mr. Wilson, by chance, yesterday, Wednesday, a large hive was bearding onto the entrance. I inspected and discovered:
1. 20 of 20 frames full of bees
2. many queen cups (no eggs yet)
3. not much space for the queen to lay as frames were full of:
A. brood of all ages
B. nectar
C. pollen
D. capped honey.
Sooooo, I split: I now have 3 new nucs, 5 frame and the original hive has 6 empty waxed out frames for the queen to lay in creating reduction of bee population of the bearding hive. No more crowding. Timing was good as I have the mated Cordovan Italian queens that needed a home. Hopefully I can successfully introduce the Cordovan queens.
There is no bearding this day by the large hive and I have early nucs for assistance in my May queen rearing.