[SnooziSuzi]

I've heard that there are even worse reports of swarms this year than last

I'll have to visit my hive soon to see if I've managed to lure one... sorry any nearby Durham beekeepers

[darren64]

I bought a new queen and introduced her to the hive last friday,I looked last night and she's been accepted there's also 3 frames of brood,trouble is some of it was capped so there must have been another queen in there all along.

[SnooziSuzi]

Oops, did you mark either of the queens? 

they'll fight it out for supremacy but you're taking the chance that the better queen doesn't actually win... that happened in my hive last year and I ended up with a less than perfect queen

[darren64]

the new queen is still in there,the only explanation I can think is,because the existing queen was so small we didn't see her,I put a test frame in 7 weeks ago and the only queen cell was tiny and poor quality and it must have been that one that survived.