# Can a swarm be queenless?



## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

Not typically but, you could have missed the queen when you captured them.


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## Rick55 (Aug 1, 2010)

I had a very small swarm move into one of my swarm traps that was queenless


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

When a swarm looses its queen, most of the bees return to the hive.
Very small swarm might have been stragglers left behind.


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## Rick55 (Aug 1, 2010)

Thnaks for that because the swarm was about the size of a baseball,mate a little bigger. I always wondered why such a swarm. I have a story to go with the swarm. I had already caught a couple of swarms and my brother had a fews hives die in the winter so I thought I would be a good sameritan and bring it to him. I get real early to close entrance , not knowing how small of a swarm had moved in, and bring swarm trap up to his house. We open up trap and couldn't believe our eyes. Kind of funny. I guess it was the thought that counted and it was good for a few laughs


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## mrsl (Apr 21, 2010)

I don't think that the two swarms I've got were stragglers; they had enough bees to cover every frame in a 5 frame deep nuc. I figured I had the queen since the bees that remained in the tree/bush went to the hive by nighttime (I put a piece of screen in the entrances & moved them at night). Could these have virgin queens? I've done a lousy job of swarm management this year, based on the number of hives that I've had swarm. I've taken the queen cells that I've found and used those frames to make splits, which has worked well (too well.....I've used all of my woodenware and had to retrieve my swarm traps to use them for splits ).


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

Secondary swarms have virgin queens all the time,
The original swarm that leaves has the old mated queen, the ones that leave after have virgins. A hive can have multiple after swarms with virgins.
If the swarm has a virgin, it can take a couple weeks before she is laying eggs.


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## Sassin (Jul 20, 2011)

Thanks Dan, this is helpful to a post I just made with a similar question.


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