My hive swarmed & when I looked in afterwards there were swarm cells at the bottom of frames & also supersedure cells hanging in the middle of a brood frame. The swarm cells all broke with each frame I pulled bc the were stuck, but there were 2 supersedure cells on one frame. I was advised that my Queen left with the swarm & to prevent an after swarm I should leave only one queen cell behind, so I did. Hopefully she had a successful mating flight & all is well, but now I’m curious as to why there were both swarm cells AND supersedure cells? Any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
It’s because they were all swarm cells not both
Bees can start off building a supersedure cell or two and in the normal course of events often change their minds and take them down. However they can decide to make more thus turning them all into swarm cells. The position of a queen cell on a frame has no significance. What is significant is that supersedure cells are normally one or two next to each other and at the edge of the brood nest where the queen seldom goes
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I think the location of the cell as to whether it is swarm cell or supersedure cell is a rule of thumb. I like leaving 2 or 3 queen cells. The first queen out kills the rest. Another option if you have the resources is to put extra capped cell in nuc with one or two frames of bees. Once capped the hard work is done. Just a waiting game. This gives you a queen bank in case the other queen does not make it back. Always nice to have a few queens around in case you need them.
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Usually the bees just swarm with the first one out keeping the virgins apart till the first is ready to fly.