# Caught queen - swarm left



## Bill91143 (Jun 7, 2013)

I don't think they would have left without a queen. They probably had a virgin queen with them. Could it be that you caught a virgin queen, and they left with the old queen? Because I really don't think they would have clustered in the tree without having the queen in the cluster, and the old queen usually flies from the hive to a nearby tree or other structure. I doubt she would have been down in the grass unless you knocked her down someway.


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

Some after swarms have more then one queen. If they didn't have a queen they would have gone right back into the hive they left.


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## dremsen (Jun 23, 2013)

It could be that I caught a virgin queen. All I know is that I was looking into the mass of bees and there was this queen, virgin or not. I will say that when I put the queen cage with her near the remaining mass of bees she only attracted a small number of workers to her. I was expecting a big pig pile of bees around the cage. So maybe it was a virgin in which case I suppose I should let her out of the cage to go get busy.


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