Hello all--

My first post to the group, although I've been here for about a year
now. I'm looking for additional data on causes of swarming and/or
supercedure. As I understand it, a colony will either swarm or raise a
new queen for one or more of three reasons:

1. Hive crowded/poorly ventilated

2. defective queen

3. disease such as nosema

Is there another cause I have missed?

        I ask for the following reason. I have a hive of Carniolans. They
swarmed at the end of the season last year. I found them with a new
queen and numbers drastically reduced. They over wintered well, although
numbers were low. I assume the older bees left with the other queen
(although the original clipped and marked queen is gone). The new queen
is currently laying and there are about 5 frames of brood, but right in
the middle of  a couple of frames are queen cells.
        From what I have read, these are "emergency cells" (Samaturo,
Beekeepers Handbook) rather than actual swarm cells. These are the cells
a colony will raise when the queen has suddenly died or is failing, but
in this case the queen hasn't died. I see her almost every time I look
into the top of the two deeps I'm using. She, in fact, seems to be doing
her job as well as can be expected given this is western PA and the
weather is taking its time getting warm for extended periods. I tested
for mites and found there to be practically none, two in the
quantity--200 or so--tested. (I used the ether jar method.)

        I am really baffled by this. What is causing these bees to raise a new
queen? I still have a couple of days before the queen will hatch, so I
can destroy it. But if the cause is still present, they'll likely raise
another and I'll be so busy with the 15 new colonies I'm setting up that
I may miss it.

        This is my second year of keeping bees, and I am in the process of
expanding from two to 17 colonies. I am in the very southwestern corner
of the state (Greene county). The hives are positioned in small
clearings in the woods behind and in front of my house. This is purely
rural here. All pastures and forests.

        But again, do bees raise queens for amusement on rainy days? I think
not. Clearly something is going on here. Any observations/suggestions welcome.

Jim Lindstrom
Oak Forest, PA