> > ... when I find hives in imminent swarm condition I  don't bother to
> > attempt to keep the bees at home, rather, I split the hive into as
> many nucs as I am able to make up using the swarm cells at hand.
>
> I did this too this year with a good colony that started many swarm cells...
> However, after two weeks when I examined the nucs, every one of them
> had torn down the swarm cells and were busily storing nectar in all available
> cells.

You don't say if the cells were sealed or not when you placed them, or whether
you examined them for damage, or whether you determined how far from emergence
they were...

At two weeks from insertion to inspection, it is possible that queens were
indeed in the nucs, but had not begun laying.  Perhaps, if you looked at 3 in
the afternoon, they were out mating at that moment.

When we ran mating nucs, if memory serves me, we did not find eggs until 11 days
after placing ripe cells and generally did not bother to look much before 14
days.  If bad weather intervened, sometimes we  would have to add 7 days to that
before the queens became evident by their laying.

After queens emerge, bees generally tear down the cells to the cup.  So, my
guess is that you gave up too early.

The only thing I can see that might counterindicate this is that the bees were
storing nectar in all cells, but then nucs plug easily.  Although a queenright
colony will normally reserve and polish cells for the queen, in a strong flow,
the bees will cover even eggs with nectar.

allen