JG>Does a swarm try to find a new site some (minimum) distance away from the
  >parent?  How does this work out as regarding competition for available
  >forage, etc.  I have a dim recollection of reading somewhere that a swarm
  >won't investigate potential home-sites that are too "close" to their
  >origin.  I wonder if anyone can provide some info or references.
 
Hi Joel,
 
I can't give you any scientific reference but I have seen hives swarm
out of one hive in my own apiaries and into another hive in the same
apiary, more then once. I have also had them take up open air residence
between two hives, and in the space under the hives.
 
JG>I have always presumed that swarms that arrive and occupy empty hives at my
  >bee-yards have always come from some distance away, and not from my own
  >hives there.
 
I am sure that swarms can cover several miles and that there are "swarm
parking or congestion areas" that swarms migrate to. I also believe that
swarms will naturally follow certain paths of travel, like down stream
from one elevation to a lower one.
 
All of the above is from personal observation and not scientific
research. The problem with research in flight activity is that it
assumes that all apiary sites are the same and they are not.
 
One of the most interesting observations I can recall is a queen bank
hive I kept in the driveway in front of my honey barn. For several weeks
all the bees would leave that hive and make a giant swarm on a fig tree
maybe 120 feet away. They would do this at about the same time everyday
and come back after an hour or two of hanging out so to say. They would
leave only a few hundred bees in the hive to care for the caged queens
but enough that none were harmed by the mass exit. The first time I
observed this it did give me some anxious moments as the queen bank
always contained several hundred queens. I never did find a queen with
the swarm and the hive never showed any signs of having a laying queen
other then the one's caged for later use.
 
                             ttul the OLd Drone
 
 
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