swarm takes off without their queen

[duck]

had a move in at a house down the road, pulled off a piece of siding and vacuumed out the swarm and the queen.  Threw em into a box, and closed off entrance with piece of queen excluder.  They had a mated queen in the box for about 20 minutes and then the entire swarm took off and never looked back..  Looks like a have a queen for one of the queenless colonies I have.  I suppose they could have had an unmated queen in there.

[blanc]

What a bummer duck  :-\ Have to agree with you on more than one queen. Schawee had I believe three queens in one swarm last year.
Blanc

[duck]

well heres a twist, they werent there all day, checked on her at 7:00, no bees, picked em up after dark they all came back.. huh

[tefer2]

The queen is normally one of the last bees to exit during a swarm.
When they found that she was not with them, they returned to get her!
The excluder kept her in the box.
I find a frame of open brood works the best for us.

[L Daxon]

Yes, I saw a swarm leave one of my hives and head up high in a nearby maple tree.  About 20 minutes they came back to the hive, I assume because the queen hadn't gone with them for some reason.  I've heard when the queen doesn't seem to want to leave sometimes they will bite her legs  to try and make her leave.  Maybe it just took your swarm a while to realize they queen wasn't with them.

ld