Bee-listers :
 
I am taking some bees out of a wall with the bait hive and metal screen
funnel technique.  The bait hive is a 3 frame Nuc with laying queen.
 
It has been a week and a half since I started and the single brood chamber
is wall to wall bees with the new hivekeepers.
 
I examined the hive today and noted 3 queen cells in the middle of the
brood pattern. I have learned that these are superceedure cells.  Swarm
cells are at the bottom of the frames.
 
I had a decision to make - Remove the queen cells or kill the old queen and
leave one queen cell to hatch.  I chose to remove the queen cells and keep
the old queen laying.
 
I also added a super to give the hive more room.
 
My question is.... should I have killed the old queen and let the bees
raise a new queen, hoping they woudl not swarm due to cramped quarters from
the transitioning bees.
 
BTW I have been keeping bees for 25 years and still have questions.  :)
 
Paul Cronshaw DC
Cyberchiro and Hobby beekeeper
Santa Barbara, CA