What's going on

[janesik]

Two or three days ago , in an interval of sunny weather, went down garden to look at hives. Up in the air about 10(?)m above hives bees were circling round and round ( not a swarm too few for that) - normally they just go over shed and buzz of in the favoured direction for that day. According to eagle eyed husband, there were quite a few drones. A few hours later all back to normal. What was going on?

[Rosie]

Could it have been a mating swarm? Do you think there might have been a virgin in the hive?

Rosie

[Jon]

I saw that a dozen times last summer near my apideas and as Rosie says, it is likely to be a mating swarm.
They are packed with drones.

[janesik]

Wondered about a mating swarm but if it was she must have started laying quickly as Sunday there were lots of eggs! Does the queen go off with accompanying bees to drone congregation area?

[Adam]

Jon will say yes - I'm sure he'll be along shortly to explain....

I have seen a full colony swarm out, swarm back and the queen is laying a couple of days later. It's the avatar picture to the left of this text.

[Jon]

I think some queens mate locally and some fly off to drone congregation areas. I have no idea what proportion mate locally but it must be quite a few given that I have witnessed several of these swarms.
Most of the mating swarms I have seen over my apiary, the majority from apideas, have been on fine sunny days exactly when you would expect a queen to mate. Beowulf Cooper talked about amm queens mating locally in bad weather but this does not coincide with what I see.
When I have been able to positively link one of these swarms to a specific apidea, I generally find eggs in it 2 days later.