I am very new to bee keeping and I just attempted my first swarm catch tonite and it was huge (by my standards anyway) So big that I have to bring an additional brood box in tomorrow morning because they won't all fit in the one I brought. So I got the majority of the swarm out of the top of the tree into the hive at about 7 pm but there were still a bunch flying around and some I couldn't reach in the top still. I decided to let them chill for a while and came back around 9:30. All the ones in the top of the tree appear to have joined the rest in the hive (and box I had to leave overturned on top of the hive because there were to many for me to put the top on). The thing is that when I left, the property owner says "what about all these at the bottom?" And sure enough there was a much smaller swarm nestled behind a bunch of branch shoots at the base of the tree. If these are part of the same swarm why didn't they join the rest of them in the hive?
It may be a different swarm, or stragglers, or the queen and her entourage. I had some bees I was cutting out of a stump. When I got through there was a lot left crawling around. So I put the box on top of the 5' stump and smoked the stump real good. The plan was to run the bees up and smelling the hive they would go into the box. When the dust was settled they were in three clusters in a sapling pine. I still got them.
when I hive a swarm I set up a brood box with frames on a bottom board & put an empty brood box on top to act as a funnel. you can then close it up while the bees move down onto the frames. I also keep them locked down for 24-48 hours. I've brought swarms home & done everything right: given them brood, honey, lemon grass oil......& the next morning they were gone. locking them down anchors them. if the swarm was not too far from my house I leave a baited nuc overnight to catch the stragglers.
The small swarm could be the queen and a group of bees staying with her. The other bees that joined the ones in the box could have been attracted by the pheromones of the bees inside there...they will fan and give off their scent (nasanov?) to attract their sisters. Or...you could have two separate swarms with two different queens....a primary swarm with the old, mated queen and a secondary/after swarm with a virgin queen. Hive them separately and check to see if both have queens. If one group is queenless then combine them.
At least that's probably what I'd do... :)
Best wishes,
Ed
a couple of years ago, I received a call to a construction site for a swarm on a piece of 2" conduit sticking out of the ground. when I arrived there, after work, the swarm had split into 3. they were all in sections of conduit sticking out of the ground, they marked the ends of buried conduit. Only one of them had a queen. The conduits were from 5 to 20' apart.
Jim
Thank you...I think that answers my questions.
Sometimes even in a tree they will be split apart.
Jim