Hi All/Layne

Layne, you mentioned you got a queenless swarm and that it seemed to
have some sort of plan as it left the box you put it in.

In southern africa queenless swarms are quite common. Capensis tend
to throw out excess bees in times of dearth sending of a queenless
swarm. These drift around as loose swarms that forage and cluster
through the cold winter nights (when they normally issue). Over time
they amalgamate with other queenless swarms untile they have enough
to set up a hive, then everybody knuckles down and builds a new hive
and rears a queen - obviously only capensis can do that.

However - queenless swarms also amalgamate with queenright swarms.
Some of those bees, in the absence of a queen will have developed
ovarioles. Recent research shows that bees with developed ovarioles
have a number of different smells - queenlike, nonqueenlike etc.

The queenlikes will probably be killed, but the non-queenlikes will
get to sneak in a few drone eggs, and when the swarm supercededs -
those drone should be ready to do the new queen!!

Keep well

Garth
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
15 Park Road
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
6139 South Africa

Time = Honey