Hived swarm preparing to swarm

[Charley]

I hived a big swarm on 29th May.
They settled in beautifully on three drawn frames and the rest foundation.
By 12th June the brood box frames were all drawn, there was brood in all stages and I added a QX and super of mostly foundation.
Yesterday 11th July, there were two individual charged queen cells at the bottom of frame 4 and 9, probably about 6 days old.
I did not see HM but there were plenty of eggs and lots of bees.
There is plenty of room for the Q to lay. Are they just swarmy bees? Could it possibly be supersedure?
Having got all my AS kit together it has poured all day today and I am away tomorrow!
Have placed a bait hive about 20 feet away and just have to wait until Thursday to take action.
Any comments on their behaviour please? (or mine!)

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sounds like swarm cells to me...sorry
I have had an early swarm make swarm preps in the same season.
I might be tempted to AS, re-queen the part making a new queen then re-unite.

 

[Jthebeek]

Could be a supercede. I've seen fantastic queens replaced after swarming with no apparent reason. I have always assumed queen must have had superficial damage from the swarming process. Personally I'd let them figure it out themselves however if you want to be safe transfer the Queen and a few frames to a nuc and winter her in the nuc. Let the colony then raise a new queen and if they fail you can allways recombine with the old queen. Good luck

 

[Eyeman]

Have placed a bait hive about 20 feet away and just have to wait until Thursday to take action.
Any comments on their behaviour please? (or mine!)

As you only have one hive and if you want a chance of some honey this year then I would:
1. Find the Q and put he into a 6 frame nuc with 2 frames of sealed brood (no queen cells ), 1 frame stores and 2 frames foundation. Ideally move to new site > 3 miles away.
If you leave the parent hive to requeen itself with one of the queen cells then you are less likely to get much honey this year (brood break) and will be breeding from an unknown stock (original Q was from a swarm).
2. So I would buy in a new queen from one of the Q breeders on this site and requeen your hive and hopefully get some honey this year. (You'll need to read up on how to do it)
Consider buying 2 queens and requeen your nuc so that you end up with 2 hives this year- easier to manage problems when one has 2 hives!