Several occasions this summer, 1 st year beekeeping, I have found that the marked queens in the hives had become either unmarked or superseeded. I have watched for swarms routinely. Any ideas?
it is possible for them to lose their mark, be it a spot of paint or a paper
tab stuck to her back she may have been superceded there is really no
way to know
Swarming is as common if not more common than supercedure. They probably swarmed. Maybe they superceded. The paint sometimes wears off, but close inspection usually shows at least a little bit of paint around the edge of where the dot used to be.
The biggest myth about swarming is that putting supers on is all you need to do to prevent it. :) That works well in the middle of summer, but is not adequate at all in the middle of spring.