From my experiance of having clipped queens for many years,i have to say that they do indeed cluster,from as little as 15 mins up to 6 hours even on more than a few occasions,the one's that remain clustered for the shorter times are the ones which generally have the queen either under the floor or back in the hive to await her fate,this queen has not had chance to get far from the hive and all the fanning bee's call her back.The ones which stay out longer have usually lost the queen,as she is trying to reach the cluster overland and gets lost in the undergrowth. I have had this happen on swarm control days with up to five hives swarming at the same time,as i am collecting the queens from the grass,all the bee's return when they are ready,i have even had the same hive swarm three days on the trot at a similar time,and go hang in a tree,not even any cells in the hive,but the queen allready confined by excluder,until i can do something about them.And just breaking down cells is not an answer to those who think they have stopped the bee's from swarming,they can have another sealed cell in the hive three days after you have destroyed the others,and off again,the swarming impulse has to be sattisfied,and in some cases letting them do this and removing the queen or confineing her for a few days will work. If you do nothing and leave cells in a hive like this the first virgin out and off they go,with an even bigger swarm than the one with the old queen.Even trusting one cell ,one virgin, in a hive that has lost its clipped queen is very risky,they will often swarm and leave nothing but a few young bee's.I have even on one occasion that i know of swarm one late afternoon and stay out all night,before returning.But still the good point,and main reason for clipping is, they do return,so you have your foragers,and hopefully your honey crop.
