Clipped queen swarm

[snimmo243]

Last Saturday I checked my colonies, one of which had a clipped queen. Upon inspection we found sealed queen cells and no queen, it was clear they had swarmed and judging by the number of bees in the hive the fliers hadn't returned (as per the literature on clipped queens) a bit perplexed we dealt with the hive, closed it up then went to look at a bait hive we had set up about 30 yards away. There were lots of bees checking it out so we headed off for the day.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning whilst feeding our artificial swarms we had a keek at the bait hive and it was clear a swarm had moved in.
This morning we went to check on our 1 remaining original queen and the newly arrived swarm.
Imagine our surprise when we found our CLIPPED queen in the bait hive! We took a photo and compared it with another earlier photo, it's definitely her! The only difference is her left wing is ragged and a bit of paint has worn off her back!

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[Jon]

You need to clip a bit more off the wing!
I remember when Megan Seymour was at out apiary a couple of years ago she reckoned one of our 'clipped' queens could fly about a quarter mile if she had the urge!

[snimmo243]

I've got a couple of photos of her I will post when I get a chance. The thing is last Saturday the swarm must have been hanging about nearby whilst we were doing inspections. This has also messed up my colony numbering :-)

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[Black Comb]

One of mine has done the same, except instead of going into the bait hive they have found a hole in a tree 30' up.
It's now a feral colony I expect.
Must clip better next time.