Should I go and buy an accelerometer?

This link is really interesting and I suppose we will all now have to go out and buy accelerometers!  There has been really serious issue with weak hives this year in the UK and so if there is a way to help ensure hives remain strong this is great! The really interesting thing however is the timing.  The researchers say they can tell 10 days in advance that a swarm is going to occur.  So at what stage in the development of a new queen is this?  Well by my reckoning if a hive swarms just before a new queen emerges then the process is identifiable at about 6 days into the development of a new queen i.e. a day or so before a queen cell is capped.

So get in and remove queen cells early if you want to stop a potential swarm!  I don't think this is particularly revolutionary as we've known removing queen cells stops swarming - so long as the queen cells are uncapped. Removing capped queen cells will not stop the process. But what could be interesting is the development of a device that can positively identify swarming behavior, without a beekeeper having to go and disturb a hive.