Hive swarmed 2 days ago

[splinter99]

Hello
Our hive swarmed on Friday and we finally captured them on Saturday after a few unsuccessful tries. When the swarm would settle I noticed that they would form one large mass and one small mass, We captured the large mass and most of the small mass and put them in the hive that I just built.
Sunday the bees were in the hive and seemed fine but the small mas had reformed in the same place that it was..Does this mean that there were 2 queens? Also, could a swarm from our neighbors hive joined in?..

Today we captured the small mass and put them in another hive..I don't know if they will stay or not..Is this common?

[JP]

It could be you had another queen or that the swarm was just big and had a large and small cluster, side by side.

It is normal for a small amount to cluster back where the main swarm cluster was, its about scent.

What I would do is shake the small cluster in a cardboard box and carefully examine it to decipher whether you have a second queen or not.


...JP

[Gware]

I had one beekeeper report that a swarm he caught  had seven queens in it.

[JP]

I had one beekeeper report that a swarm he caught  had seven queens in it.

The record I believe is 22.


...JP