Ian:
 
Addendum to below:
 
Perhaps the other half of the big swarm that you put elsewhere
had their queen in it and so they went where they belonged. You
actually had two queens in one hive and one in the other (the
small swarm). The real question is what happened in the hive
with the two queens? Remember you said you took half of
the large swarm and mixed it in with another swarm?
...........................
 
Those that you saw all marching in, obviously didn't
care for the accomodations, and they all marched
out for elsewheres. :-) They found your Three Star
Rating misleading!
 
Al,
 
 
 
 
On Sat, 7 Jun 1997 20:14:13 -0400 Ian Watson <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>Hi all
>
>This being swarm season, I got a call that my bees, strangely enough,
>had
>swarmed.  Fancy that...;)
>I found a rather small swarm on a small tree about 20 feet from the
>colonies, and a very large one about 40 feet away, 20 feet up in an
>old
>pear tree.  Since I only had one empty hive with me, I hived the small
>one
>and then roughly split the large one between the small swarm and
>another
>swarm that I had picked up last week.  Now when I was out at the
>Beeyard
>this afternoon to feed them, I noticed that the hive with the small
>swarm
>and part of the larger swarm seemed to have only the small swarm in
>it, or
>even less.  There are only enough bees to not quite cover two frames.
>My
>brother Robert found the queen, so that's one good thing.  Now, the
>question is this: Where did all those extra bees go that I dumped in
>front
>of the hive?...I saw them all march in, so I know they were there at
>one
>time.
>It's a mystery to me...
>
>Any comments would be appreciated
>
>Ian Watson      [log in to unmask]
>St. Catharines, Canada   (near Niagara Falls)
>real estate agent    gardener    homebrewer    baritone
>beekeeper---> 7 colonies, 3 nucs on order
>