I wonder how a queen thinning down will affect her spermatheca?
Interesting question. My guess is once she is back up and running normally all will be as before, because we see the way swarms do so well, the queen is obviously restored to good performance. But in a pre swarm hive, if the queen is kept in a perpetual state of swarm readiness due to beekeeper intervention to prevent swarming but not kill the urge, might be an issue, it would be a hard one to study and get an absolute answer.
I don't think anti-swarming is being selected for in todays bees.
Pretty sure you are right ARB. Particularly at the hobby level, much increase or replacement is made by collecting swarms, thereby propagating the swarmers. I'm pretty sure the bees where I am are a lot more swarmy now, than when I got started 50'ish years ago.
Here's a thought on that. Way back before humans started managing bees, there had to be an optimum level of swarming for a hive. Don't swarm enough and your line will be replaced by bees that swarm more. But overswarm, and the parent hive will be decimated, plus the swarms may be weak in bee numbers and have a lower chance of survival. So somewhere in the middle is an ideal level where few enough swarms are sent out to ensure that each is strong in numbers and has good odds to survive.
But then enter humans, moveable frame hives, and intensive management by the beekeeper. The situation is now skewed. Because if the beekeeper is a swarm collector, he / she will hive the swarm, and help it along to ensure it survives. Which means that overswarming hives now have a survival edge that they did not have previously. IE, the more a hive or strain of bee swarms, the more numerous those bees will become in a kept environment, regardless of the quality of the swarms they produce.
End result, a shift towards swarmier bees.