what happened

[darren64]

About 3 oclock this afternoon my wife rang me to tell me the bees were flying all over the garden in their hundreds,she had never seen them acting like this before,like a huge swarm,I told her that if I came home there would be nothing I could do,so when I got home at 4.15,I looked and there was a lot of activity but she said they had calmed down a hell of lot since she rang me,I looked through the apiary door and the main hive was fairly quiet,so I thought perhaps they had swarmed,the small hive that I split from the main hive when I did an A S had bees swarming all around it.I checked the main hive and found the queen so no it hadn't swarmed.what sort of behaviour could I expect from a hive when a new queen goes on a mating flight?

 

[Poly Hive]

Possibly... it is very difficult to scale flying behaviour.

One swarm looked big and covered 6 frames, another looked a bit smaller but was in fact a third the size.

PH

 

[Midland Beek]

what sort of behaviour could I expect from a hive when a new queen goes on a mating flight?

Exactly that, especially if she is flying from a colony that has never been allowed to swarm but wanted to. And a virgin queen can quickly attract a sizeable following of drones.