>I have one hive that was installed this spring. The bees have already >swarmed once and are now building many queen cells, some on the side of the >frame and some on the bottom. Why are they doing this? They have room. They >have an empty honey super but seem to refuse to enter it. Swarming is the natural reproductive method for the honey bee. While breeders have worked for a long time to reduce the tendency to swarm it is still something that bees like to do. If your bees swarmed already, and you did not requeen afterwards your stock is of totaly unknown breeding as the old queen left with the swarm and the new queen mated with drones at random. Do the bees have room in the brood chamber? The nest is a round (ball shaped) area inside the hive. If the brood chamber is full of honey, pollen and brood then the queen will lay in the cup cells provided by the workers. If the honey super has only foundation then the bees will require a strong nectar flow to draw it out into comb.