Topic: Odd beehaviour

[Toadspawn]

Today a small swarm of bees appeared near my hive in my garden. I followed it up the garden and it looked as though it was going to fly over the roof of the house. My neighbours were watching. I walked around the house expecting to see the bees and follow them until they landed. However not a bee came into view. I returned to the other side of the house and again there was not a bee in view.
I looked through the bees yesterday and they were fine, and put on bee escapes to clear bees away from the honey.
Why did the bees swarm at this time and where did they go?

[Robert_Brenchley]

It could be a mating swarm. In some strains an excited crowd of bees will follow a flying queen, and return with her. Or it could have been a drone comet. Have you a hive that's superseding, or are you currently raising queens?

It's late in the year for 'normal' swarming, though it's not unheard of. As the old rhyme has it, 'A swarm of bees in August is worth a pint of sawdust'. This doesn't sound like it though.

[Toadspawn]

Yes Robert, a mating swarm did cross my mind and if so it would have been a supercedure queen because the marked queen was in the hive when I looked yesterday. No sign of queen cells on previous examinations but unfortunately they can be overlooked, although a supercedure cell is usually in the middle/top of the comb rather than near the side or base.
However, what I cannot understand is how one moment there were lots of bees in the air and about 2-3 minutes later not one bee was visible. If they had gone back to the hive why could I not see any flying around?

[Robert_Brenchley]

If they weren't flying at all, that is odd. Normally workers will fly in worse conditions than queens or drones. If you mean they were flying normally, with no fuss, a few minutes later, that would be normal. Another possibility that crosses my mind is that mature queens do take flights occasionally. It could be excitement connected with such a flight, if you haven't clipped the queen.