Is the queen in this swarm?

[nessieb]

My question is how do I know if the queen is there?

There is a long story involved in collecting this MASSIVE swarm which was on a very high branch. I will share the complete story if necessary but its a lot of typing.

Anyway, some of the bees went into the box and sheet the rest fell into the long grass and undergrowth
Alot of the bees walked into the box to join the majority, some went back to the branch and some formed clusters in the grass. Seeing as time had gone on (by this time it was 9.30pm) I decided to call it a day as I would have never got them all and I couldn't go back the next morning as I had work and the weather forecast was poor, so did up the box and took them off to hive them (about 1/2 mile away from swarm)

Next step was hiving them, as it was now about 10pm so I'm afraid I shook most of them into the hive from the top and the rest I then let march in the front door on the white sheet at their leisure (which they did).

I had a phone call to say there were loads of bees on the front of the hive this morning but by lunch time they had settled down again but one or two bees seem to be "lost" as they are flying in the barn.

So would the bees have all gone again by now if there was no queen?
Will the few left on the branch and in the undergrowth/grass go back to where they came from?
I think its a virgin queen or very recently mated.

 

[rae]

Generally if they march in, the queen is in there. You can normally see the movement very clearly. A load of bees at the entrance, bums in the air and fanning, and bees piling in all around them. Significant clusters elsewhere could be bees thinking the swarm is still where it was, or it could be that the queen is in the cluster. The fact that they piled into the hive and stayed there suggests that she is in there. Otherwise they would have come out again in about 10 minutes.

 

[nessieb]

This is what I thought although I hear stories of people catching swarms and then finding them being Q- especially as it was such a difficult swarm to catch.

 

[Finman]

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If the swarm has no queen, it returns to its old home.

 

[Finman]

This is what I thought although I hear stories of people catching swarms and then finding them being Q- especially as it was such a difficult swarm to catch.

There is no idea to search a queen from swarm.

The swarm with virgin is more difficult to catch than with laying queen.
Virgins are sometimes several 3-5. What is the idea to find them. In the morning extra queens are dead.