Worldwide Beekeeping

Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: Jen on April 30, 2020, 11:58:27 pm

Title: At What Age Do bees learn to fly?
Post by: Jen on April 30, 2020, 11:58:27 pm

I saw a swarm today and attempted to capture it. I've caught tons of swarms. When I bent the branch down to the readied hive box, I gave it a fast sharp bump, all the bees flew away. That is not that unusual, but what was weird, is that there were baby bees in the box, frames and on the ground, maybe 30 of them.

I've never seen baby bees in a swarm before. Babies ranging from a couple days old to about 1 week old. I was under the impression that bees this young were not able to fly yet?

Title: Re: At What Age Do bees learn to fly?
Post by: Bakersdozen on May 01, 2020, 09:20:31 am

I agree, Jen.  Sounds "not right". 
I wonder if that was a colony that absconded as apposed to swarming.  A mite level check might be in order.
Did your swarm fly away when you tried to catch them?

Title: Re: At What Age Do bees learn to fly?
Post by: Jen on May 01, 2020, 12:41:15 pm

Hi Baker, no mites, and when a hive absconds.. can just some of the bees abscond? I thought an abscond was the entire colony?

But really, nothing surprises me with bees

And getting back, how old to young bees need to be to fly? I just cannot imagine how those babies flew over to the tree with the adult bees.

I did a inspection on this hive about a week ago, and no swarm cells. scratching head.

I'm wondering if this hive had a massive hatch all at once. So the adult bees flew out and knocked out a bunch of babies during their flee?

UPDATE: I did a deeper search all the way down to the first box, and what do you know, queen cells! So I didn't catch the swarm, and they must have just been ready to flee and didn't want to stay in the box. But Still!! There is no accounting for baby bees in the swarm. Yet another bee conundrum  ???