I was out looking at my bees today and saw that my hive was swarming again!!! I decided to check the hive for eggs and if the still had a queen, I did see the queen but pretty sure it has eggs, anyway, while I was checking the hive it sounded like it began to swarm again but instead I see the swarm moving back into the hive with the bees fanning the "come here" sent and everything. did the bees realize they didn't have a queen or do they just like to tease me?
This would bee the forth swarm so far from the same hive.
Fourth? Have you considered splitting it up into smaller pieces until they get over this?
Greetings . . .
What swarm prevention and control methods are you using?
Are you sure it really is a swarm? Bees on their orientation flights can look like they are swarming. These "play" flights usually take place in the afternoons, or whenever the bees feel like it.
The main difference will be that the bees will face toward the hive and fly around it, thus helping them get the location of the hive set in their "minds". The action around the hive is quite intense during these flights, but will usually subside after an hour or so.
Hope this helps.
I didn't really have any swarm prevention methods because I wasn't expecting this hive to swarm because I just started this hive in the beginning of April and I thought it had plenty of room, but after the first swarm I checked the inside of the hive and didn't see any queen cells so I assumed that they were done swarming. Then the hive swarmed twice more, I didn't make a split because I don't have enough equipment of space for a ninth beehive. I guess I could give brood to one of my weaker hives but I am not sure if there is a laying queen in the hive.
I am almost 100% certain it was a swarm that moved back in because it looked like they were beginning to land on a branch at the top of a tree and when they moved back in the were releasing the call sent and practically covered the entire front of the hive for about 15-30 minuets then the bees moved inside.
The same kind of thing just happened to me. Only it was with bees that moved into a shed wall yesterday. A month or so ago we had the bees in the wall removed by a beekeeper. A few remained. They had little comb left as the keeper took the comb and bees and put them in a hive box when he removed them. Then yesterday we saw a bunch of bees flying around in the mid morning on the other side of the shed. It seemed like they must have had a swarm in the wood pile, but we couldn't see any. They were just buzzing all around in a big sphere. Then within an hour they all seemed to be entering and inside the wall of the shed (which now has the boards cut so I can pull off sections and see inside). Well, there they were with a bunch of empty new comb, bright white and clean. It was in sort of tear drop shapes because there are no frames in the wall (I was going to put some but never got around to it). Then everything seemed to get real quiet. This morning things were quiet and I couldn't tell there were bees in the wall so I looked and there were a bunch sort of sleeping on the comb and around it and all over the inside of the wall. Then this afternoon all of a sudden they were all flying around outside the wall facing it in a big buzzing ball of bees. Within an hour they all were quiet or gone again.