During the summer, there was some discussion on this list about the timing
of a queen's participation in a swarm. As it happened, the next day I was
working a colony when a burts of bees issued from the one next. I
recognized this as the beginning of a swarm and noted that it was 12:01.
The swarm formed a cloud from the colony to a nearby fence post. I went to
the post and observed the bees arrive. I spotted the queen, an unmated
queen, as she arrived at 12:09. She landed near the top of the cluster and
was quickly covered by the bees already there. The whole swarm was in place
by about 12:15.
Of course, one cannot generalize from this single observation, but this
queen, a virgin queen, not the original, clearly arrived in the middle of
the time line, not at either end of it.
Cheers,
Tom