Interesting questions being raised.

Re maturity of queen cells at swarm issuance, I don't usually see the swarm
take off until the cells are well ripened--curious about the observation of
swarms leaving upon the sealing of the cells.

Re mother/daughter fighting and nepotism--the old queen may leave with a
virgin daughter in the swarm.  Don't know whether they both survive in the
newly-established colony.  I have yet to see a study that found nepotism,
but there is some intriguing research not yet published.

Re causes for initiation of queen cells--I'm curious as to exactly what
triggers affect which individual workers to initiate cell cup construction.

More questions: which specific individual workers initiate queen cell
construction, which individuals feed the queen larvae, is there truly a
difference between queen and worker jelly, confirm Winston's apparent
observation that workers may move eggs or larvae to queen cups, if queen
footprint pheromone indeed suppresses queen cell construction, then how the
heck would a queen find a cell to lay in?

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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