Bees moved house

[badger65]

I am not sure what has happened here. I had a very strong hive with a few queen cups. Opened it up today and there are a less bees. There are however a load more bees in the hive next to it. The original hive has eggs and space.

Could they have swarmed. The queen is clipped so they would not go far. If they did try to swarm why would they not go back to the original hive. The hive they are all in now is pretty rammed.

 

[For want of a better word]

Possibly... if the hives face in the same orientation... and are fairly close to each other.

You could try swapping them around to even out the flying bees or give the colony with "more" bees space... with the hope of a large colony enough to produce a surplus?

Yeghes da

 

[oliver90owner]

Clipped queen landed on the wrong hive?

 

[badger65]

Will it be OK to swap the hives around to even them up. Will they fight?