# Why would bees swarm then return to hive?



## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

Perhaps for some reason the queen was unable to fly. Obviously, if she's clipped she can't fly but even if she's not clipped, she might not be able to fly well enough to join the swarm. In such a case, the swarm will leave and then return when the queen doesn't follow. They'll wait a few days for a virgin to emerge, then they'll swarm again


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## riverrat (Jun 3, 2006)

the queen didnt follow. Did they land and cluster before going back to the hive.


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## hummingberd (Aug 26, 2006)

anyway to stop them from "re-swarming?"


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## RAlex (Aug 18, 2001)

If the queen is clipped I`d be checking to see if she is out on the ground. Possibly in a cluster/ball of bees ...Rick


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## blkcloud (May 25, 2005)

Its a feral swarm I caught last year, The queens is not marked nor clipped, I noticed this morning there were bees all over the landing board.. about 2 pm the sky was full of bees, I had a call to come collect a swarm so I left a guy who works for me to watch them, when I got back they had all gone back into the hive, I just put a new super on the hive 4-5 days ago..


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## SemoraBee's (Aug 14, 2007)

I had the same activity last weekend, however, the bees never flew. They just gathered on the front of the hive and formed a beard of about 4 pounds of bees on the landing. It started misting rain and they all began filing back inside as though the fire drill was over and everyone back to work. Iddee say that they are overcrowded and will eventually swarm. The weather has not been suitable for doing any manipulation of the hive. I hope they stay around till we get some dry and warmth.


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## tecumseh (Apr 26, 2005)

a queen with a frayed wing or not slimed down enough to fly. perhaps they just want to practice a bit before the real event?


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## yoyo (Jun 13, 2007)

My strongest hive bearded under the bottom board two days in a row( 3-4 lbs worth). I took a new hive body and put it right next to it and then scooped up a few handfuls of bees and placed them in the hive. Next morning they were all in the new hive. I then robbed two frames from the parent colony and moved them to their new stand. They are happy and working. My advice is to split them imediately before they swarm. You probably will have a few queen cells to deal with and if they are strong enough, you may can split it 2 or 3 ways.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

A similar thing happened to one of my hives many years ago. I noticed the "swarm" happening and quickly grabbed some equipment. The swarm landed underneath the hive stand. I was able to capture it including the queen. I set them up about 10 ft from the parent colony. For the next hour or so you could see an obvious reduction in the swarm hive and see that the bees were going back to the parent colony. Eventually all that remained was a handful of workers with the queen. I now believe that this was a virgin queen on a mating flight. This hive eventually swarmed again, which was lost to the trees. 

If I were you, I'd take the advice and split this hive ASAP. I bet you'll find lots of queen cells to make a few nucs.


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## paintingpreacher (Jul 29, 2006)

Owner of a peach orchard called yesterday with a swarm on a small plum tree. When I arrived a few minutes later I found they had moved about 100 ft. to a peach tree. They were about the size of a football but were very unsettled. Gave them a few moments and caught them in a box. They were not at all interested even with two frames of comb inside. They left out as quickly as I put them in. As I watched, these bees seemed to simply break up and slowly disband. I believe they returned to one of the hives which were nereby. I also wondered if this was a queen on her mating flight as these bees did not act like a swarm and did not leave like a swarm..


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## Troy (Feb 9, 2006)

I suspect on inspection you will find quite a few swarm cells already capped, or worse maybe some are open and a virgin is out.

If that is the case the only method I know of to keep the bees is to fool them into thinking they already did swarm.

I would brush all the bees off into a new box with new frames and foundation. Empty drawn comb is good too, if you have it. Take the other frames and distribute to other hives as you see fit. You can cut out the queen cells and set the whole box (with all the frames of brood) on top of another hive if you wish, or distribute the frames of brood to other hives that need a boost.


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## dcerdeiras (Mar 20, 2011)

I had a very interesting thing happen to me today. I just installed two packaged bees a weeks ago and was trying foundationless frames. Today, I went to inspect them and had to re-arange some combs. I lost a few, but was able to save the eggs and larvae. Than, in the afternoon, they apparently swarmed but came back. Could stress cause them to "false swarm"


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## Rex Piscator (Oct 12, 2010)

I had the same experience early in the week. Saw the backyard air was filled with bees. I went out to the apiary and saw the bees pouring out of that hive; they eventually landed back onto the hive. Within an hour, they all marched back into the hive. I'm scheduling an inspection as soon as I can... This is what it looked like before the re entered the hive:


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## timgoodin (Mar 10, 2007)

I had the exact same thing happen last year, upon inspection I found a hatched superceidure cell and apparently this was one of the virgin's mating flights. I actually saw here reenter the hive with the swarm and upon inspection she was the only queen in the hive. It was a very hot day here and all I could figure was that many of the bees were outside bearding on the front of the hive and when the virgin emerged they became excited and left with her?

Tim


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