that last swarm left

[rober]

i'm not sure why. bees will be bees eh? i gave them 2 frames of honey, 2 frames of drawn comb, lemon grass oil. & a frame of brood with eggs. checked the hive earlier & there were about 12 bees in it. well i'm still 4 for 6 plus 2 that left before i arrived to fetch them.

[danno]

try moving them to a new location.  odds of them staying go way when moved

[jaseemtp]

Rober I have had the same problems before.  I am not sure why the do it but I was given a tip to use a queen clip and keep her caged up for 3 days. 
I have even done removals where they would leave after I placed them into a hive.  They even left brood and food behind.

[rober]

my mentor even shook his head over this one. like i said they had lemon grass oil, honey, brood, the new foundation was sprayed with syrup, & they had drawn comb. PLUS they were relocated by 15 miles.

[blanc]

rober I had them same thing happen the other day. Vacuumed up a swarm of about 40 gran of bees out of a friend s house and appeared the queen was in the box and when I went back to pick em up they all scooted on me. Was pretty bummed about it but went get another hive today out of a cut down tree and hope these stick around.

[BlueBee]

Rober, it sounds like you've been pretty successful to me!  4 out of 6 swarms isn't bad.  You can't win all the time you know  :( 

I've caught 7 swarms so far this spring and I do one thing differently than you listed.  I give the bees a little water by squirting some water into some empty cells.  Probably not a big deal and for all I know it might be a completely worthless step, but I am batting 7 for 7 so far this spring.  I've caught some real beauties so far.