Swarm clustering on another hive entrance???

[threehives]

Hi All

I collected a swarm about a week ago and relocated it to its new home, today I went to check on the hive and it had a huge cluster of bees on the entrance holes (I use top bar hives with top entrances) At first I thought the colony was going to abscond but then spoke to a neighbour and they said the colony of bees living in their tree was going crazy today, so I am thinking it could bee a swarm from the bee tree which has landed on my new colony entrances. The other thing is I set up my hives as bait hives until I have bees to go in them so the particular hive had swarm commander sprayed on the entrance holes not long ago. I put the cluster in a separate box and placed it next to the hive thinking if they are just bees from my original swarm they will go back home and if they are a new swarm which has landed on my box then they will begin building in the new box. Any thoughts?? Cheers Phill

[BeeMaster2]

Phil,
It is not uncommon for swarms to Usurpate, take over a hive. Especially a new hive. I have seen it happen in my back yard to 2 hives. I had just moved a small hive into one box and a handful of bees and a queen into a Nuc about 4 feet away with an established hive between them. I was watching them at about sundown, maybe a few minutes later when I saw a swarm fly in and they mostly went to the larger of the 2 new hives and then a third of them went to the small hive. I was really surprised to see a swarm this late in the evening and then to see an usurpation of 2 hives. They usually kill the existing queens. The next day they had moved out of the larger hive and were in the smaller hive. The following day they were gone.
It was a small swarm and they may have done it to add bees to their size.
I do recommend that you add a piece queen excluder over the entrance to keep them there until they are established.
Good luck.
Jim

[threehives]

Thanks Jim, I'll go back this arvo and see what they are doing. I like how beekeeping always keeps you guessing.

[BeeMaster2]

 
Good luck

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Jim, good story, that is an incredible event you witnessed.  Was either original queen killed or replaced with queen cells, honey robbed prior to swarm departure.  Thanks for sharing, seeing a swarm take over a hive would be amazing, just incredible.
Blessings

[BeeMaster2]

Jim, good story, that is an incredible event you witnessed.  Was either original queen killed or replaced with queen cells, honey robbed prior to swarm departure.  Thanks for sharing, seeing a swarm take over a hive would be amazing, just incredible.
Blessings

They emptied both hives but the 2 swarms were only a day or two in the boxes.
Jim