Betterbee

Hi there! If the queen cells are capped, then the swarm has more than likely already taken off. If they are uncapped, but occupied with an egg or young larva, you could make a split by moving the original queen in your hive and 3 frames of brood, 2 frames of honey, and other open frames into a new hive body. Be sure you don't move any queen cells over with them though! This should stop their swarming instinct.

When they are not bringing in enough pollen on their own and need more protein. In our area now, they should be ready for winter. Usually we will start feeding pollen patties in early spring to get the queen laying earlier for a heavy spring build up of bee numbers. If you don't need the early bees, you might skip the pollen feeding and just wait for the tree pollen to start.

Beemax feeders need a telescoping cover over the top to keep the bees out of the syrup. Do not use an inner cover, as the bees will be able to get in and drown.

Call Dr. Peck and see if Betterbee can help!

They have synthetic drawn comb which I believe is called Bettercomb. You can find it in with the Hive Parts and Components tab under Frames.