1. President Tupelo beekeepers Association
Swarm Cells and Splits
By Daniel R. Morthland
President Tupelo beekeepers Association

2. What is a Swarm cell?
As the hive population begins to grow and adequate space for brood rearing becomes scarce, the queen will lay fertilized eggs in specially constructed, elongated cells called queen cups. 
Vertically oriented
Can be anywhere in hive, typically located on the edges of a frame
Feed Royal jelly
Capped after about 8 days
Capping the cells signals the hive it is time to swarm.
Queen cell video

3. Why do bees swarm? Multiple stimuli cause bees to want to swarm
Colony congestion
Dilution of queen pheromones
Increased availability of Nectar and Pollen
Lengthening daylight
Queen age
Lack of room for queen to lay eggs
Over crowding is notably the number one cause for hives to swarm.

4. What happens before and during a swarm?
Queen looses a great deal of weight as works feed her less to prepare for flight
Queen laying output decreases significantly
workers begin to gorge themselves on honey
other activities such as foraging stop temporarily
hive noise increases
The Old Queen and about 50% of the bees rapidly leave the hive
Queen will land and all bees will surround her while a new hive is located
Swarms my rest for a few minutes or a few days
parent hive left behind my have multiple cells and about 50% of the bees
Sometimes virgin queens will swarm with the old queen called subsequent and or tertiary swarms
Generally the firt queen born will kill all other queen before the hatch
Sometimes two virgin queens will fight to the death
rarely you may have two virgin queens that become matted queens in a hive

5. How to prevent a swarm? Questions
Swarm prevention should be initiated before the first nectar flow
Provide adequate space for the bees
Switching brood boxes if you use two
Colony equalization, move frames from out to in, move to other hives and splits
Reqeening, late summer or early spring
Clip the queens wings, effective if combined with other measures, bees may kill her if she can not swarm, queen may not be able to get back in the hive
Remove the queen cells and cups
Questions

6. How to due a split
Split video