So I took a look at my hive this afternoon and saw a large clump of bees around the entrance, with a queen in amongst them, they were all piling into the entrance with a constant stream of bees still arriving while this happened. The guard bees seemed irritated but there wasn't any fighting going on and within half an hour the activity died down(the sun was setting) and they all entered the hive. I did a quick inspection a couple of weeks ago and there was definitely a queen already in there and laying well.
It's still winter so it's a bit early for swarms to be looking for a home, so I'm a little confused about what exactly was going on. It's a fairly weak colony only occupying 7 frames in a 10 frame hive. I started it from a weak nuc late in the season and it's taken a while to get going, it's had a lot of problems but finally seemed to be doing well.
I'm not too worried, since more bees can't be a bad thing but I'm curious about what it was all about.
Could it have been a neighbour's hive absconding and taking over my colony? Maybe a swarm from my own colony leaving, then returning?
This is my first colony and I'm still learning the basics so I'm not sure what's normal bee behaviour and what isn't. I'm just west of Brisbane(If that helps).