Caught queen but no Swarm

[Apis_M_Rescue]

Seen a swarm flying round apiary yesterday round 3:30pm looked like it emanated outta hive it landed on. I brushed bees to see if could find queen & after 20min found one & placed her in queen cage w/ 2 workers thayt looked like were offensive toward her. Only thing is not many bees were interested in her & most went back inside hive w/ only 10 still hanging round her.

I thought I had seen 30 min earlier a swarm but never seemed to settle anywhere to pin point so went back to this hive where all the action was & found queen as said earlier. Was this a pre swarm drill by this hive or did I arrest a secondary swarm? I need to take this hive apart later this week or weekend but did heft it & its weight seems lighter than before on most boxes.

Cheers, David S

[bailey]

the hive could have requeened itself and what you saw might have been the virgin queen doing a mating flight.
it would be good to keep this queen in a nuc with enough bees to feed her. then go through the hive in question and look for evidence of a queen.
if you dont find a queen or eggs that hive will need the queen in question and you will be saving the hive.
good luck.
bailey