Swarm split in two! Anyone ever seen this?

[kedgel]

Last night I opened up a new hive to check it for the first time.  It was swarming with hive beetle larvae.    I took out all the frames with grubs on them and transferred the 3 good frames and the bees into a nuc.  When I checked them today, they had swarmed.  I put the bees back into a hive with 5 new frames and crossed my fingers that they will stay at home.  As I turned to go, I realized there was a lot of buzzing that wasn't coming from an agitated new hive.  I looked up and saw about as many bees as I had just hived in a separate cluster hopelessly high in an adjacent tree.  Is this normal for them to cluster in more than one gob?  Now what? Am I screwed?  Hopefully I got the queen.  If I didn't, I expect they will take off to join the other cluster, wherever they end up.  Any chance the other bunch will rejoin the hive if that is where the queen is?

[kedgel]

I may have partially answered my own question.  I just checked on my hive and the errant bees are clustered on the outside.  Which brings another question:  Do I open the hive and smoke/brush them into the hive, or wait until dark and then open the entrance and let them go in by themselves?  (I closed up the hive to keep them from rushing out).  I plan on feeding them and keeping the entrance closed until they start to build comb, etc.  I've never dealt with this before.  THANKS FOR YOUR INPUT/Advice..

Kelly

[kathyp]

by closed, you don't mean with no way to fly?  that would be a bad thing.  put the entrance reducer on the small opening, but do not completely close them in.

[Grandma_DOG]

My gut reaction is to treat them as a cutout. Any hive that has trauma can leave brood behind to restart elsewhere. 

One trick someone showed me to reduce my freshly cutout hives from absconding is put on a queen excluder on and stuff grass in the complete entrace so the bees have a a day or two locked in to settle down from the trauma. The excluder can be removed in a week or two.

[kathyp]

unless the queen is in the clump on the outside........

the best things to do to anchor them is give at least 1 frame of drawn comb for the queen to get busy on, and feed.  the queen excluder underneath is a good idea if you are sure the queen is in the hive.  the bees will not usually leave without her.