Queen eviction

[GaryMinckler]

June 5th...5 week old package rejects a clipped and marked queen.  June 18th...same colony swarms, taking huge number of bees with it.  I don't get it. 

[Brian D. Bray]

June 5th...5 week old package rejects a clipped and marked queen.  June 18th...same colony swarms, taking huge number of bees with it.  I don't get it. 

The hive had unmarked queen(s)--probably virgin--in with the workers so the caged queen that came with the package was rejected.  Once the virgin queens mated the presence of multiple queens was noted and 1 swarmed.

[GaryMinckler]

I thought with a multiple queen situation they would fight it out until only one was left.  Update on swarm: 44 hours now and swarm is still in tree right near hives although much smaller.  I actually thought I saw bees flying from swarm back into hive last night.  (robbing?)

[derrick1p1]

I doubt bees from a swarm would rob from the hive.  The gorged themselves before leaving the hive, so I would think they may be just 'going back home'? 

Can you get to the swarm and capture it?  If not, can you set up a swarm trap.  There are alot of post regarding swarm traps if you do a search on it.

[GaryMinckler]

Swarm is very high... actually thought about cutting the tree down and notching it in such a way to make it fall over slowly.  Am looking into swarm traps now for future use.