These weird looking cells that protrude from the comb are queen cells- which means my hive swarmed! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Swarming is the way bees reproduce as a species- one hive splits into two. When the bees decide to swarm, they start raising new queens and half the colony takes off with the old queen in search of a new home. The first queen to hatch goes around and stings the other developing queens to death (very dramatic but true). ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Since the cells are all chewed up and empty I could tell there was already a winning queen- and I found her! Virgin queens are smaller and harder to spot. Now I check back in 2 weeks or so and make sure she’s laying eggs. #beekeeping #urbanbeekeeping #savethebees