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Subject:
From:
"Dave Green, Eastern Pollinator Newsletter" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 26 Apr 1996 23:09:32 -0400
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In a message dated 96-04-26 10:44:15 EDT, [log in to unmask] (Glen B. Glater)
writes:
 
>I had a swarm land on my back porch today, about 7 feet away from my
>swarm trap which they seemed to be ignoring.
>
>But that's not the point of this email.
>
>The swarm was about 25 feet in front of my 2 hives.  How (if it is
>possible at all) can I tell if these bees are (used to be) mine?
 
   Generally a swarm will pitch the first time within a couple hundred feet
of the original home.   I have located unknown bee trees, by scouring the
area around a pitched swarm.  They don't go far.  After the queen has rested
(and slimmed down some more) for a couple days, and the scouts have found a
home, they may go a half mile or more on the next trip.
 
   More certain is to look at the brood frames in your hives.  You can spot
recently hatched queen cells, by the perfectly round and freshly chewed
opening at the bottom.  You can also sometimes spot cells that were torn down
from the side by the first emerging virgin, which queen died before she ever
saw the light of day.  You can distinguish these from old cells, which get
chewed down in time, and usually are only about half sized, when they let
them be, for another use, another season.
 
   If one of your hives has swarmed, you will have a virgin queen, which is
very difficult to find, as they are runny, and may even take wing.  They also
are intermediate in size between a worker and a laying queen, so usually it's
not worth the time to look for her.
 
   Hives that have swarmed, especially if they do so repeatedly,  may take a
long time to get going again.  There is a delay while the queen gets mated
and gets her progeny emerging.
 
   You can help them come back quickly by giving them a frame or two of brood
about a week after they cast the swarm.  I like to make sure these frames
have eggs as well as sealed brood.  This gives the hive another chance to
raise a queen, if the virgin queen gets eaten by a bird or dragonfly while on
her mating flight, or if the weather is too stormy for her to have a mating
flight at all.
 
   Good luck.
 
[log in to unmask]    Dave Green,  PO Box 1200,  Hemingway,  SC  29554
 
Practical Pollination Home Page
http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html

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