Swarm spotted

So my bees are now all set. I found the queen and put her in a fresh hive and started feeding her. The other hive is also now getting on with raising a new queen. All I've got to do now is decide if I unite the two colonies and when I do it or do I raise a new queen and let her take over. The downside of the new queen is that it'll take time for her to mature, go on a mating flight and start laying.

Standard estimates suggest it will take at least three weeks to go from egg to emergence to mating flight and laying. I need to add on to that another three weeks for new workers to emerge and get going. So I'm facing a six week fallow period while the new queen settles in. Hmm.

Alternatively I can establish her in a nuke and get the other bees into the other hive so they are building up as the other one is coming along. Lots to ponder.

But, the day after I did the swapping and was back tidying up the plot I noticed a swarm settled in a cherry tree nearby. I didn't think it could be mine as I'd only just swapped them around and my queen has her wings clipped so can't fly off. So I left them to it.

I came back this week and that swarm was still there. I panicked and wondered if it was mine so, against my better judgement, cracked open the queen-raising colony to see if it was them. No, it wasn't. There were loads of bees in that colony. Far more than would be left if lots were in a cluster on a nearby tree.

It's also not the other one as there are loads of bees flying in and out of that colony so they are happily getting on with being in their new home. Hmm. There's not much I can do about it as I do not have enough equipment to house them. I suspect next time I go down they will have flown away.