Re: Swarm returning to hive?????? My suggestion would be as follows: When I capture a swarm I put an excluder over the hive entrance to stop them getting away. I have seen such bees leave a hive cluster on a tree give up as the queen does not join them and go back to the hive as sunset comes around. Now, I gather that in many parts of the world people clip the wings of queens. If you split a hive with queen cells it is possible that the hive which swarmed and returned may have had the old queen who would have swarmed if she had full wings to excape the new queen about to hatch. My theory. Keep well Garth --- Garth Cambray "Opinions expressed in this post may be those 15 Park Road of Pritz, my cat, who knows a lot about Grahamstown catfood." 6140 *[log in to unmask]* South Africa Phone 27-0461-311663 In general, generalisations are bad. But don't worry BEEEEEE happy.