This is my understanding of Queen cells.
A queen cell hangs vertically no matter what sort it may bee, swarm, supersedure or emergency. These are found sometimes between the combs in the bee-space but usually on the comb towards the or on the edge of frames.
Emergency queen cell.
These are only built if a colony has lost its queen either by accident or design by the beekeeper. It takes about 5-10 mins. before the colony to recognise that the queen is missing. Therefore the first signs of emergency queen cells being built will bee visible in about one or two hours. To produce a viable queen it is necessary for the bees to build on cells containing young larvae; young larvae of less than 36 hours will produce a good queen.
Swarm & Supersedure cells.
These queen cells are identical in appearance, and are built on queen cups. Swarm cells are generally found in the lower half of the brood nest with some hanging at the sides and along the bottom. Supersedure cells are similar but there are likely to be fewer if them hanging along the bottom of combs.
The number in each case differs, more being produced with the swarming impulse compared to the supersedure impulse. A useful working guide is 5-10 for supersedure and greater than 10 for swarming; there is no sure way of differentiating between the two.the number of swarm queen cells produced depends entirely on the genetic makeup of the mother bee; bees that are inveterate swarmers will produce 50 queen cells or more.
There are times when the bees reseal the queen cell from which a virgin has emerged should be noted.
A ripe queen cell is characterised by the darkening of the tip.
Hope that has helped somewhat.
Regards;
