Had an interesting swarm experience weekend before last.
 
I found a swarm clustered in a low bush near my hives. I had a pretty godd
idea of the hive from which they came and confirmed my suspicion by
flouring a few bees from the swarm and dropping them in front of the hive.
Sure enough, they all returned to the suspect hive. Following a Richard
Tayler suggestion from a Bee Culture, I moved the the hive that threw the
swarm on down the line and hived the swarm in the location of the hive from
whence it came. The idea is to let the field workers join up with the swarm
and make lots of honey.
 
Then I went through the hive that threw the swarm and destroyed all
remaining queen cells (which may not have been a good idea). No sooner had
I finished my labors than I found another swarm in the air. After these
settled, I put them in a new hive. I figured they must be swarming with a
new queen that had already emerged in the original swarm hive.
 
I returned half an hour or so later to the apiary to find the second swarm
abandoning the hive I had given them and apparently rejoining the hive from
whence they came!
 
My theory is that destroying all the queen cells left the swarmy hive with
only the one young queen that departed with the second swarm. Once they
were gone, the hive was queenless. Somehow, this fact was recognized by the
second swarm, which then went back home.
 
The question I have is: How did the second swarm figure this out? And why,
once they'd left the hive in a swarm, did they prefer their old home to the
nice new one I had provided?
 
As someone said, "Bees are a chancy thing!"
 
Greg
 
______________________________________________________________
Greg Hankins                    Montgomery Packaging
[log in to unmask]                 Troy, North Carolina
Voice: (910)576-0067            Fax: (910)576-0367