Further on the matter of cutting queen cells to stop swarming, following
is an excerpt from my May article on how to stop swarms from "Bee
Culture" magazine.

Dick Bonney
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> CUTTING QUEEN CELLS
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> Cutting queen cells is a time honored method of controlling swarming. Unfortunately, it is not a reliable method, especially when done at the interval often suggested—every two weeks. This interval is based on the queen’s development time of sixteen days. Cut every two weeks, so the thinking goes, and a new queen will never mature.
> We need to look closely at queen development during a swarm cycle. The swarm leaves on or about the day that the cell containing the first new queen is about to be capped. This is the cell containing the replacement for the queen leaving with the swarm. If that cell, and any others that are present, is cut before it is capped, it will slow the swarm process but not stop it. The bees will select one or more larvae of proper age and begin to raise them as queens. Since these larvae will be 4-5 days along in their sixteen-day development cycle, they will be only 3-4 days away from being capped, at which time the swarm will feel free to leave. This means that queen cells would need to be cut every three days to be effective. This would be totally disruptive to the colony, even if it were possible within the schedules of most of us. Cutting queen cells is not a viable swarm control method.
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