> I understand that the logic behind this is to prevent swarming.

No.  It buys time.

Sooner or later (perhaps after a couple of attempts) the queen will not return to the hive (did she go or was she pushed?).  Sometimes you might find her out in the long grass, but in my experience it is then no use trying to return her and do an artificial swarm - seems that she has been rejected and the colony will go queenless unless it has eggs or young larvae to produce queen cells.

Worse, if the queen has been lost, the first virgin to emerge might well lead out a huge mating swarm which will probably not return.  I suspect that this is because there is no young brood left with which the bees could make a new queen, so their only hope of survival is to stick with the virgin.

Best wishes

Peter 
52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W

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