>How can you tell the difference between swarm and supersedure cells? 

There are 3 variables to look at. Placement on the comb, number of cells and seasonality. Typically during swarm season there will be a comparatively large number of cells, a dozen or more, at various stages of development along the bottom edge of the comb. There can also be some up in the comb field but they will usually be constructed from cups that pre-existed the swarm prep in hollows and deformities. Supercedure cells are most often up on the brood field and pulled from worker cells. Usually there will be fewer spread over several combs and mostly of the same age. If an emergency situation, ie the queen was somehow killed they can be small and prematurely capped. If it is not swarm season you can be fairly sure that the bees are superceding her. As Pooh so wisely says "You can never tell with bees" but these are good general guidelines. 

Paul Hosticka
Dayton WA

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html