Will a swarm ever return to the originating hive?

[bee happy]

One of my hives swarmed two days ago and I managed to capture it. This afternoon it swarmed again and gathered on a branch about 75 feet away, too high to capture. About 1/2 hour after they seemed to have settled down I noticed many of the bees leaving the cluster and milling around. Then a bit later I looked at the original hive and it looked like it was swarming again, it looked like a huge orientation flight, many bees milling around and clustering on the front of the hive. When I went to look at the branch, all of the bees were gone. As I write this, (I can see the hives out of the window) nearly all of the bees have entered the hive. ???

[iddee]

They most likely went without the queen, for whatever the reason, so they returned. They will try again in a day or two, possibly with a different queen than the one who couldn't keep up.

[odfrank]

One of mine swarmed last week, went back in after never settling down, and now looks like they stayed. I have pics of it re-entering.

[nc checkers]

I had one of my strongest hives do that same thing today. Someone told me I had a big swarm in a bush and when I got there to look they were in the air and going back in. The second surplus super is foundation so I was waiting for them to draw it out before adding another. How can I make these bees stay home and work? We seem to have a very good poplar flow going now.

I removed all the Swarm cells 4 days ago and the Queen was laying good then.

I hope this link works

http://www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoVie...45_95366554515

[Beaches' Bee-Haven Apiary]

Sound like a case of home sickness... they decided not to leave after all!

NC Checkers' bees are kind of restless too. It's like the boy with his belongings on the end of a stick, he leaves home for a while, starts to miss it and returns. But, yeah, it would be nice if they go some of their chores done.

-Nathanael

[bee happy]

Is it common enough that one can be too hasty to hive a swarm from a known hive?

[odfrank]

Bees can and will make a liar of you again and again. I'm not one to say yes or no. Just remember, a swarm in hand is better than a swarm flying off into the woods. Once they have clustered, I'm hivin them up.

[Dick Allen]

Four years back I had some hives about 50 miles up the road. The guy who owned the property called me to tell me one hive had swarmed and they were in a tree about 10 feet off the ground. So, I drove out there and put the swarm into a new hive we set up next to the original one. I guess it was too close for them, because the guy called me again the next day and said the bees had absconded from their new home and had flown back to the same tree. I drove out there again, but this time I brought the swarm and empty hive back to Anchorage and hived them at home. This time they stayed put.

[AstroBee]

I had one of my strongest hives do that same thing today. Someone told me I had a big swarm in a bush and when I got there to look they were in the air and going back in. The second surplus super is foundation so I was waiting for them to draw it out before adding another. How can I make these bees stay home and work? We seem to have a very good poplar flow going now.

I removed all the Swarm cells 4 days ago and the Queen was laying good then.

I hope this link works

http://www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoVie...45_95366554515

This hive will definitely swarm on you (if it hasn't already)! Cutting out swarm cells is not going to prevent this. I'd split this hive ASAP, taking the old queen with the split. It may actually increase your honey yield too.

[brooksbeefarm]

I had this problem and a old beek said to put a frame of brood in with them and they won!t leave.I did and it worked.He also said you can put a queen exclueder between the bottomboard and brood chamber to keep the queen from leaving.I don!t know about the last one? I!ve always heard the workers will slim the old queen down before they swarm so she can fly,but it might work?