Swarm Number 3

[Jen]

OMG !! That is EXACTLY how it happened!!!! My incident took longer tho, they swirled in the sky and near the bank, many landing on the ground but not grouping up at all. Then, in less than 5 minutes they gathered back at the hive. And while mother hive was at it's peek, daughter hive next door look like it was going to swarm as well.

I could cry

[barry42001]

what your gentleman friend is referring to is called absconding, for example they will do that when you're infested too badly with varroa, or small hive Beatles.. you didn't bother them too much.


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[pistolpete]

I really don't see how inspections every week or so would make them swarm.  It seems to me they forget all about it the minute the smoke clears.   My first year I was in my hive all the time, inspecting once a week and peeking under the lid almost every day.   That hive produced around 250 lbs of honey (150 for me) and never even thought about swarming.   They were too busy pulling 50 frames of comb I guess.

[LazyBkpr]

 
  From about Mid April to the end of June I inspect every week. I don't necessarily pull the hive down to its roots but I am on the lookout for cells and for congestion.
   Between early spring management and the last of the late spring early summer splits My bees would all have vanished if bothering them was an issue.   I have read where it takes them three days to recover from an inspection..  I will have to disagree with that.  Even pulling boxes apart frame by frame doesn't seem to take them long to reorganize. Certainly they are back on track well before the next morning.

[Jen]

Re: yesterday swarm/mating thing. I figured it out! It was April Fools Day!

They boiled out, then came back to the hive right in front of me "KIDDING! HAHA! MAKE YA PUT YOUR JEANS ON, HAHA!"



If I didn't love em so much I'd put them in lockdown

[Jen]

After viewing the video on this thread about mating flights looking much like swarming, this guy said that this event was the third day in a row that his hive had done this exact same 'ritual' if you will.

Is it possible for a queen get fully mated in one day?

[Jen]

Update from yesterdays swarm/mating incident. Just came in from watching the hive for a minute or two. Found a dead queen in front of the mother hive, and several drones hanging out on the porch.

I'm thinking that there was a queen fight yesterday or today, and the drones are waiting on the remaining queen to get her butt in gear.

What do you think?

[Jen]

Once a queen get mated and is laying, what does she eat? or does she get fed?

[LazyBkpr]

   I would have to guess thats what happened.
   Every time she goes out to mate may not be a dramatic event like you saw yesterday. She will possibly take several mating flights, maybe only two or three. The average number of drones quens mate with vary from two or three to nearly 40, with the average being 12 times.
 As far as I know the queen is fed royal Jelly from nurse bees under normal circumstances.

[Jen]

Good Gravy! I sure have A LOT of respect for her putting up with all those randy boys!

But then again, she doesn't have to deal with them for the rest of her life so I guess that makes a pretty good balance 

[barry42001]

don't you have at least a little sympathy for the boys though?

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[pistolpete]

barry is referring to the fact that drones die within hours of mating.

[Jen]

Not really    I'm more amused by the females that have their spent lovers for dinner 

[barry42001]

and it's not so much the fact that they die within hours of mating, is the reason why they died =-O

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