Failed swarm.

[beehappy1950]

Had a swarm yesterday it grew pretty big so I watched it to see if I could catch it. It started getting smaller then I noticed it was building on front of hive it came out of. There was about 2 gallons of bees making a beeline right back into the hive. Figured it was just the queen was to fat to fly or to old. Dont know. Anybody else seen this before. Harold

[BeeMaster2]

You are probably right. The queen probably did not come out of the hive. A swarm with out a queen cannot survive and they know it.
Jim Altmiller

[Acebird]

Most likely they will try again.

[beehappy1950]

I was wondering about that Acebird. I wonder what I could do to change their minds. Ive heard that once they make up their mind they go anyway. It is a very abundant hive.  Got any suggestions.

[BeeMaster2]

Smoke them and wait 10 minutes and then smoke them again. This will put them in swarm mode. Then Split them and move the old queen to a new box. Put a queen excluder under the bottom board so that the old queen can not get out for 3 days. Put the old queen in a new location. Field bees will return to the queen less hive to give it an extra boost. Make sure the split hive has eggs and lots of larvae to to make a new queen and have enough young bees to support her.
Jim Altmiller

[Acebird]

You can't change their minds so like Jim my only suggestion is force the swarm on your terms and split.  But I don't know if this is a good time for you in your location.  If they swarm and it is not a good time it is suicide.  If you force it you can provide resources but I don't like doing that.  Doesn't mean I wouldn't.