What is the normal behavior of a newly-hived swarm? We had our first swarm yesterday, containing our old queen (we saw her in the cluster, as she is marked) - we caught the swarm in a deep super, and left the box near the swarm site for an hour or so. Many additional bees went in, and we saw some fanning on the roof and at the entrance, so we hope we got the queen. The swarm is still in there today, and I added a feeder of sugar syrup. I have seen about 4-5 bees go in there today, but no-one has come out. Is this normal behavior? When should I expect to see any activity?
I also have a question about the old hive - before we realized the swarm was ours, we checked the old hive pretty thoroughly, looking at frames - I am now afraid we might have disrupted the queen cells, as there was quite a lot of comb between the two boxes, some of which split open when we took the frames out. I guess the only way to check that the hive has a queen is to check for eggs and larvae - what is the soonest we should expect to see new larvae (I am not good at spotting eggs!)? How do we know when to intervene and requeen? I am also not good at spotting a queen unless she is marked!
It's not abnormal to see little traffic from a newly hived swarm for a day. It takes them a little bit to make sure everything is right inside and they should be all pumped up to make some comb first ,unless you put them on comb that is already drawn out. Stick your ear up to the hive and you will hear them.
The old hive should have eggs and such there from the old queen if they have just swarmed.
If you have opened the new hive and the swarm is still in there I would not worry about it. Did you place the swarm on frames of drawn comb or new foundation? The fanning on the front of the hive is the bees putting their scent in the air so all the swarm bees can fond the new home. And I would not worry about the old hive for several weeks, then if there is no eggs, you can rob a frame from your swarm hive, if needed.
We put the new swarm in a hive body with one frame containing old comb (with some honey on it), a couple of waxed frames and some new foundation.
Check the swarm in 7 days for eggs, 10 to 12 days for brood.
Check the old hive for eggs in 14 days, and again 1 week later.