Greetings all,
This morning my brother saw my bees form a cloud outside of their hive.
Their swarm shape was that of a pillar two meters at the base and about ten
meters in height. He and his 16 year old son have been great helpers to me
and managed to capture the swarm just minutes after they landed in the
nearby crabapple tree. My brother and nephew dumped the swarm into a large
box and set it down. Before they could get  the rest of the bees collected
the entire lot left the box and returned to their original hive.
I've just returned from  work to find the hive behaving in a fairly normal
fashion.
My question ..... is this normal? Has anybody ever had this experience? I
have three hives in my bee yard, the center one swarmed and the other two
appear fine( working their little wings off right now).
Thanks for any help..
Peter