Swarm problem

Jubee · May 19, 2016

We were planning on doing an artificial swarm but on Tuesday our bees beat us to it. We found the queen and moved her into a second hive with a frame of brood and some stores. We thought we had thoroughly checked that there were no queen cells. The swarm followed the queen into the new hive. Today ( Thursday) they swarmed again on the outside of the hive. We couldn't find the queen. On checking the frames, it looked like we had missed a queen cell. Over the next half hour, the bees returned to the hive. Should we check the hive to see if the queen is there, and if she is destroy the queen cell and if she isn't, leave it alone? Or do something different? Any advice would be very grateful accepted.

BeeJayBee · May 20, 2016

Was the queen cell open or sealed?

JWF · May 20, 2016

If they want to swarm they will probably swarm even if you knock down the QC. You need to get in there and do an AS, moving the queen and flying bees to a new hive preferably with undrawn foundation.

That said, they may still abscond from their new home if they've really got the mind to go.

Jubee · May 20, 2016

Open.

Jubee · May 20, 2016

Why did they return to the hive of their own accord ? When we looked, the queen was there. There was an open queen cell

beeno · May 20, 2016

Jubee said:
Why did they return to the hive of their own accord ? When we looked, the queen was there. There was an open queen cell

They returned because the queen was not with them she was still in the hive.
As far as I am concerned this is as good as it gets! Make sure you have got her in there, put QX on to prevent her from swarming and make sure there are not more QC in there and no eggs or young larvae they can make more QC from. They may try to go again, but they have to come back! See how that works in the short term.
Also, parent hive down to one QC. Good luck.