This may be the same issue as Ron's scenario.
O.K. there was a small swarm I helped with a month ago in Charlotte with another newbie bee keeper. They were on a small crepe myrtle away from the hives.
We threw them into a new hive.
Here is the weird part. The new hive we started feeding with sugar water since there is no stores whatsoever. Soon as a quart is on, it looks like a highway from a hive to this one with the sugar water. They don't fight, they suck down the water togther. It looks like a super highway.
SO was this a swarm or an extention of that main hive that had a cluster of bees for some reason away from the hive? (it was not that hot either...)
I don't think there was a queen, they are making two queen cells now. I don't expect them to live.
Maybe this is what Ron also experienced?