HI LAYNE WESTOVER AND ALL BEEKEEPERS:

  Layne asks " Where do queenless swarm's go? "  I can comment on this by my most
recent experience in my own apiary. I had a hive swarm last weekend, even though I
had placed a second deep on top the week before, but the hive was in the swarm
mode, and I did not inspect them, just checked to see when I needed to add the
second deep. Last weekend I saw a big cloud of bee's emerge from this hive and
circle above the hive, then drift off to a stand of tree's. I followed them so I
would be able to retrieve them, and put them in a new box. I watched them all land
on a branch way up in a tree. I then went and started to gather all the things I
would need to capture the swarm, but when I returned in 10 minutes they had gone
back to the hive. They were all hanging on the back of the hive. When I inspected
the swarm there was no queen, and when I checked the hive I found swarm cells, but
they were not capped as yet. The original queen could not join this swarm because
her wing is clipped, so the bee's returned home.  The bee's will seal up the swarm
cells and then try and swarm with the new queen when she emerges in about a week
later, called " after swarms".  From Layne's post I would say he got a swarm that
could have emerged from a hive with a clipped queen, then the swarm flew back home
to the original hive. I think if a queen was introduced in a queen cage, then they
would have stayed if she was accepted.
   I think that this is one possibility that could explain why the swarm left.
BRIAN HENSEL
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B&C Bee's
Ukiah California, USA