I caught a swarm about 3 months ago. They are doing very well. The old queen died and they made a new one before I could stop it. Any thoughts?
orvette,
This is off topic of what you desired, but is addressed to something in your comment.
When a swarm is issued from the original hive, the old queen normally leaves in the primary (first) swarm. Swarming is a form of supercedure. Most think that swarming is about perpetuation of species, and that is correct. But it also is supercedure for the parent colony. And nature always plays the odds to it's advantage. So they keep the new, young, queen in the parent colony, even though there is risk in mating, etc. Nature dictates that the old queen leave with the first swarm, which has very slim odds of making it through the first winter.
So the swarm, with the old queen, many times replaces the queen as soon as they have a chance. This could be for failing pheromones, or even perhaps natures built-in system of playing better odds, that a younger queen increases the odds.
What I'm saying is...primary swarms at about 50%, will replace a queen within a period of time of a month or two. Don't try to stop this queen replacement. To do so, you may be doing more harm than good.
Many suggest to replace a queen for some perceived "swarm trait". (To which I do not buy into) But replacing a swarm queen may actually be better for the fact they will do it themselves anyways, but at a much greater loss of resources, compared to if the beekeeper does it themselves.