Little swarm

I was out at work today driving around the Norfolk country side when I received a call from a friend Village Girl. Stating some bloke asked if he could park in her drive as he was after a swarm. Imagin his suprise when she said yes then run in the house returning with a vail stating I'll give you a hand. Any way Village Girl just armed with three of a beekeeping course under her belt seems to know more about what to do than said bloke who cuts swarm down drops them into brood box borrowed from his beekeeper mate who was to busy to come and help him then as quick as he arrived he left leaving lot of disturbed bees flying about. Anyway later this evening smaller cluster of bees in same bush. Now a lot of branches were cut away so would they have settled there becsuse they could still smell queen pheromones or could the queen of been missed by bloke and still in the small cluster. Thoughts on this please. And if no queen in small cluster could they be dropped in to nuk or brood with frame of brood and rear a queen.

Sorry to say but these bees could become a nuisance, If it was in my local area I wouldn't have a problem finding out who collected the swarm and asking them politely to come back and finish the job properly and take away the whole swarm when they stop flying later the same day.

If they want to be awkward or refuse then... well lets no go there..

To answer your last question, yes they could be put into a small mating nuc and given some eggs to raise a new queen but to be honest its a lot of effort and most of these bees will be dead long before the queen emerges is able to mate.

It’s a bloke that lives in the same village as Village Girl so should not be to hard to find him. So as I suspect the queen would have been shaken off with the main swarm. So best for the bees would be to take them to him and put with the rest not that I feel he deserves them as doing such a bodge job. We collected the smaller cluster and at present are housed in a cardboard box in a shed as it may rain to night with small hole for them in box and shed door cracked so as to let them fly tomorrow. I was hopping may be queen might have been there. Though not a large amount of bees it was still a buzz excuse the pun collecting them