Difficulty spotting early signs of Queen Cells

[Poly Hive]

I have seen many colonies with the queen present and sealed cells in place. Live cells please note. Latest was two days ago.

Bees indeed do nothing invariably.

PH

 

[user 6228]

Lost two swarms this season. I always check every 7 days, have unclipped queen.

Upon inspection I swore there was no sign of Queen cells, but on next inspection they are sealed and queen gone. It's the queen cells on the face of the comb (obviously around 1 or 2 days old) Im obviously having difficulty spotting. and it's so frustrating returning to find queen has swarmed.

Other than a planned clipping of Queen... any tips?

use a good make of poly hive with a PIR cover and under floor entrance, there are less bees on the comb.

 

[Uncle Betty]

???? Clipped or unclipped they go when the cell is sealed.

Here is an interesting quote from Hooper, p.111 of the 5th ed.

... clipped queens swarm when the first virgin queen is ready to emerge. It is extremely rare for them to swarm out before this time. Unclipped queens, on the other hand, will ofen swarm out when the first queen cell is sealed and often will go earlier than this if disturbed by manipulations.

 

[Magwat]

Well, my queens hadn't read Ted Hooper. 3 clipped queens disappeared when queen cells were just capped or in one case uncapped.