Sorry team for the delay: bee stuff. I had _FIVE_ mating swarms out at once at 2pm yesterday. Fingers crossed for the blue-dot girls. Including said cast swarm.
Thanks for the answers. It was an odd situation. I hived them on the Friday evening*. The mystery VQ was in an Apidea with a cupful of bees from above a QE in the parent colony.
The swarm were definitely unsettled: half overnighted under the nuc's OMF (but that can happen) and trudged dutifully up a sheet in the morning. This was Saturday. But something was off: bees flying all over. Maybe a bit of reorientation but I didn't like it so I moved the Apidea (still closed) a few feet from the swarm And a few - not a mob, maybe a dozen - started to fan at the grille of the Apidea.
So I took a view and on Sat evening I united the Apidea over the swarm. Sunday morning all was much more calm and they had someone out mating a few hours later.
So either I just launched a GoT duel between two daughters of a great Q (mistake) or I have conducted a natural experiment. The results of the experiment would be that there is enough queen pheromone and natural swarm smell around a swarm to confuse them at least temporarily.
If someone can tell me definitely that is wrong, wonderful but otherwise I am going to be nervous next time I knock a swarm into a box.
*I disagree with Patterson on this and think he is forgetting the flyers, verging on the cruel depending on the circumstances.
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/hivingswarm.html
