I am in South Texas and I have one super strong hive. Two deeps, two supers. Two weeks ago I looked in and saw 7 queen cells. My queen is two years old so I thought that they might be requeening themselves. I kept the hive closed and let them do their thing the past two weeks. I just looked in to see what had conspired since the finding of the 7 cells and found that all the queen cells were empty, some brood cells capped and uncapped, AND I found my old queen. Now I am wondering what in the heck is going on in this hive. The temperament was calm and not frantic like I was expecting this time of year. Did not see varroa, SHB, and there was plenty of room to spread plus honey for winter. I guess that I am just going to keep it closed and say "see ya next year" and open in February. That whole if it's not broke don't fix it mentality. Any thoughts or stories to make me feel better, or advice....? I am open to any and all!
In my bee yard if you walk up to a hive 5 minutes after it swarmed you'd never know it. The first clue I missed a swarm would be the absence of bearding of a particular hive when the others were still bearding.
If it were me I'd leave well enough alone. Others with more experience will correct me if I wrong. Did you look at the swarm cells to see if they were split down the side or had a hinged cap? Splits down the side means they were killed an open hinge (like a tank door top side) means you had one hatch out and killed the rest - it's what bees do. If that's the case then more likely than not you had a swarm.
Where were the cells located? On the face or along the bottom edge of the frame? The bees may have superceded the queen while she is still laying. Numerous hives have mother daughter queens happily laying and ignoring each other. I have seen two apparently young queens laying on the same frame and studiously ignoring each other. If you have a queen and a good brood pattern, it is all idle curiosity and you are in luck.
The queen cells were located all over. Two were on the bottom and then five were mid frames. I saw some that were opened from the bottom and then the others that were still there were either squished looking or cut from the side. Maybe I opened before they found my old queen or maybe my old queen is going to swarm. This beekeeping bit is mind blowing! BUT FUN!!