Bill back in May, I noticed a swarm in progress at my home yard. It was pleasant observing while wondering, "Where are they going to land". They seemed confused. The complete swarm as a unit never landed. A few 'would land' for a couple minutes and off they would go back into the flying swarm again. A little bit later a small number would try and cluster in another spot, again a few would land and off they would go once again, back to the airborne swarming majority. To my surprise the big swarm finally flew back to the hive they left from.
I strolled to their location. They were pretty much all over the front of the hive, front, top, and sides and quickly began settling down and 'marching' in. I opened the top and bees were plenty. Questions went through my mind.
I had someplace to go and time was short so I did not dig in the hive. As I was walking away I noticed a small ball of bees on the ground 'behind' the hive. I knelt down and gently rubbed my finger through the ball. Sure enough! There she was! Thought she was in a ball, she was not being balled but taken care of. A white marked queen! I gently picked her up not wanting her to fly away and went for a queen catch cage. When I placed her in the cage I found the answer to the mystery. She only had one wing. I do not clip my queens.
Not being able to fly away with the swarm, and the swarm realizing they had no queen, they simply came back (home).
Phillip