[daj4cy]

I just went through my hives on Saturday and prior to that it had been about 2 weeks. It appears what I thought was my stongest hive is swarming. I just walked over to the bee yard to talk a look and lots of bees buzzing around the hive and many more plastered and clumped on the outside of the hive. Can I wait or should I wait to see if they land it a tree. should I try brushing them into a medium or something. I took a split from this hive in April and have pulled other frames from it as well. the genetics in it are great and don't want to lose it if I don't have to.

Thanks

 

[John_H]

Is your queen clipped? If they are clumped on the outside it may be because she can't fly. They may just go back in.

 

[MikeJ]

Sorry if this question is annoying.
If you haven't looked inside to see if there are swarm cells how do you know they are swarming and not just hot so they are hanging out - or a really large orientation - or something else?

 

[stump56]

they may have been just bearding if it was hot were you are today.

 

[daj4cy]

I brushed them off the outside there were over 5 pounds of bees on the outside of the box. Its only a little over 70 degrees here so heat is not a real issue, yet I did get them into deep box with some drawn frames. I saw the queen go down in between two frames and large portion of bees followed. I think the queen was unable to fly, it looked like the carnolian queen that has been in the hive since April of last year. She went down in between the frames. I did go through the hives on Saturday and pulled several frames with uncapped queen cells and put them in a nuc but did not did not see any other queen cells. While walking back to the house I found another small swarm about 1 pound in a tree about 50 yards away from my bees. So on my way back to put them into a medium Thanks for the advice.