JoJo36 wrote: ↑19 Jul 2021, 13:01
My hive 1 is jam packed with bees upon checking today and I couldn't see queen as literally dripping with bees!
There were a few swarm cells which I pulled as couldn't find the queen to put her in a top brood box
Hi JoJo, by 'pulled' I assume you mean cut out. To most beekeepers 'pulling' a Q/C is to release a virgin queen from a cell into a hive. I don't mean this comment to be anything but helpful, it saves confusion when asking for help if common terminology is used.
Some may disagree, but in my opinion if you continue to cut out Q/Cs, you run the risk of the bees swarming anyway, prior to any Q/C being sealed. Also, adding more hive capacity may not deter swarming (even more so if you have a prolific queen).
You have mentioned you do not wish to make increase and are short of space, but in your situation I would remove the queen into a nuc for safe keeping (can be as small as a 2 frame nuc), then unite the bees once the new queen is up and laying (using the old queen if the new queen proves unsuitable). I have used nucs twice this year, placing in a corner a few feet from the parent colony with no issues.
Yes, this does mean checking for Q/Cs and reducing to one, but to me you have already created yourself additional work with the vertical splits and removing of Q/Cs that you have been doing. It always seems a shame to have to dispatch a queen but we've all had to do it at some point.
I hope whatever action you decide to take works for you.