If i have read it correctly it sounds like the complete opposite to me, sounds like a vertical artificial swarm leaving the queen with the older flying bees in the bottom box, where if they have committed to swarm they still will in a short space of time, where as with the other method the queen is left in the much depleted top box with the brood and young none flying bees, and just one frame of eggs/brood is left in the bottom box for the older flying bees/foragers to make cells from.
This is where having a rigid system and doing it 'by the book' can get folk seriously unstuck.
We place a new broodbox of primarily DRAWN comb where the old nest was. One bar of brood in as early a stage as possible, plus the old queen, goes there. Any supers also go there. If swarming has not been TOO advanced then it works a treat, and next time back the queen has re-enlarged, and is laying at full speed again.
IF the cells are very advanced ( and ideally you should be doing this process as the old nest is full and before cells are built) then flighting all the bees back to the queen has a far less certain outcome and indeed have seen both emergency cells (with the queen present) started, and more often an immediate start on a fresh crop of swarm cells. So, if the cells are too advanced you have to adopt a 'queen away' version of the system, more like the traditional way. ( What constitutes very advanced? Hatching in the next couple of days usually, often indicated by the bees starting thinning down the tips of the cells. If not happening then if the pupae inside have any that are past the purple eye stage. In any swarm related circumstances, if the queen is slimming down then it is also too advanced.)
All is flexible. System changes as the season progresses too, as we have an eye on our first week of July deadline for all colonies to at least be in a condition to obtain honey at the heather after migration.
Finman suggested the addition of foundation as a swarm suppressing measure, but with black bees, unless there is a serious flow on, this can give rise to issues all of its own, and doing the splitting onto a box composed mainly of foundation, unless on a decent flow, can really force the swarming. We get away with it with carnies, but drawn comb is always best anyway for splitting onto to get a rapid rebound. Especially with black bees, we sometimes find that insertion of foundation mid nest can cause one side of the box to think itself queenless.......then you have fun. That would need to be the subject of a new thread I think.
Yes, the top half or moved away section WILL make emergency cells. With the existing flying bees being away back to mother there is a short window for an introduced queen cell to hatch and take over before enough of the young bees transition to flying bees for there to be a swarm of any consequence (apart from loss of a VQ that is), and we try, as far as possible, to put a ripe queen cell from selected stock in the split. If none available you have to knock down ALL cells and then leave one only at the next visit about 10 days later.....we prefer NOT to use the casually raised emergency cells (but sometimes do) as it is impossible to tell what age larva the bees had converted.
Which also answers the other question about how often we go round.....we ASPIRE to 10 days.....but often there is slippage to due weather pressures.
Please do not read any brief response on such a subject as in any way the definitive version of what we do. It is often a response to a specific set of circumstances, and a slight change can result in a major change of strategy. This is another subject that could fill a book....and then some.
