Milt,
Its a good practice and part of the art of beekeeping to seek out and find
a queen; with practice you will develop a quick eye and early spring is
the best time to learn as populations have not yet built up. There are
times when seeing freshly laid eggs standing one to a cell straight up, a
good pattern of brood, and a joyful quietness within the hive will signal
a good laying queen. But there are indeed times when you need to find her,
or you must find her!

As to swarming in a NUC or package, always stay ahead of your bees, else
they will swarm.

Chuck Norton
Norton's Nut & Honey Farm
Reidsville, NC
(Murphy's Law as it applies to bees: If they can swarm they will swarm and
they will swarm at the most inconvenient inopportune time:)

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