A swarm and a touch of luck

The other day I happened up to the hives and saw this cluster of bees hanging on the side of one of the hives. Having been 8 years a beekeeper I knew this was possibly a small swarm. I quickly ran to get a nuc box and gently brushed them into the box all while looking for the queen but didn't see her.

Yesterday morning I suited up while it was still cool and checked the nuc bees. They were still clustered so I shooked them loose and their she was! She was the queen from the recent hive I had added some bees from an observation hive I take care of. I used the newspaper method and it appeared they took their time chewing through the newspaper and created a queen instead! While checking the other hive for their new queen, I went through all the frames and could not find her. While closing up she landed on the top screen. I quickly flipped it and put her into the hive. So luck was on my side on two levels! What was becoming a discouraging season has quickly changed to a better season with 3 hives growing strong!