Tom asks "I read somewhere that if a Queen excluder is placed such that the
queen
cannot depart with the swarm, that the swarm will return to the hive. If
this be the case, I will not have lost the swarm and will not have to go to
possible trouble in the neighbourhood to retrieve it. But I am now under
pressure to resolve the situation."

What you read is partially correct.  If you have a queen excluder between
the bottom board and the first hive body, and no other entrance, the primary
swarm will still leave the hive but will return when they find the queen is
not with them.

However, as soon as there is a virgin queen, who can easily get through a
queen excluder, the swarm will leave with her!

You have two choices:
- cut out every swarm cell, and keep cutting them out every week until they
stop making them
- create an artificial swarm

If you decide to do the latter, the easiest way is to put an excluder
between the two hive bodies and leave it there for three days.  On the
fourth day (or the middle of the third day) see which body has eggs; that is
the body with the queen.  Move that body to a new hive stand.  If you like,
that hive stand can be beside the present hive, behind it, etc.

The field bees from the body moved will go back to the old location, leaving
just nurse bees, and the old queen, behind.  That hive will not swarm, as
most of the population will go back to the hive on the old stand.  Don't
worry about whether there are queen cells present, as the hive will not
swarm!  Super it normally, and you should get a normal crop.

The hive on the old stand now has a large population, but no queen.  This is
an ideal hive to produce comb honey, as it will be very crowded (with field
bees formerly in two stories now in one story).  First, however, you need to
think about a new queen.  You have four alternatives:
- If they have a sealed cell, let them produce their own.  Don't worry if
there is more than one sealed cell.  With the break in the brood cycle, this
hive will not swarm and if more than one queen hatches, they will fight
until only one survives.
- If there is a sealed cell in the hive body you moved, cut it out and give
it to this hive.  (Let me know if you do not know how to do this.)
- Buy a queen and introduce her in the normal manner.
- Let them raise a queen from scratch.  If you do this, after two weeks go
into the hive that was moved and take 3-4 frames of brood and exchange them
with 3-4 broodless frames from the hive on the old stand. This will help
maintain the bee population in the hive on the old stand until bees from the
new queen start hatching.

Give the hive on the old stand a Ross Round(tm) super, or super it normally.
As I said, this is an ideal hive to use for production of comb honey as it
will behave like a swarm, in terms of nectar collection and cell building,
but will not swarm.

Good luck,
Lloyd

Lloyd Spear Owner, Ross Rounds(tm).  The finest in comb honey production.
http://www.rossrounds.com