I hived today the smallest swarm I have ever seen. At first I didn't even recognize it as a swarm! Nestled in the grass, I used a drawn deep frame to coax the bees out. The bees climbed onto the comb and barely covered one side of the frame. The queen was last year's queen (marked white), so the swarm was a first cast, I can't call it a prime swarm. I am not sure what hive cast the swarm, but it was only a few feet from the candidates; possibly 15 feet give or take. I did not verify that the queen could fly but I have no reason to think she couldn't. I would rule out speculation that the queen emerged with a swarm, fell to the ground, and the swarm returned to the hive. Actually I *have *seen golf ball size clumps of bees with clipped wing queen, but I stopped clipping queen wings when Bush the elder was president. So why such a small swarm? Tortilla size, perhaps an inch thick. Any SWAGs out there? Aaron Morris, thinking dang, that's a small swarm! *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html