<Swarming versus dying>.  


I really admire Tom's work, but it's a bit misleading to say the stats don't differ from before and after varroa, when the end point for colonies that don't swarm is sure death.


Swarming is a reproductive process of strong hives (but as Seeley points out, that's really a result of crowding in a restricted space cavity or box).


For a honey producing beekeeper, swarming of a significant part of the colony is an economic set back - not likely to harvest the honey of the swarms.


Having done years of research with bees in smaller boxes for statistical replication purposes, I know that bees in smaller domiciles parallel the larger colonies in most everything except final population size and amount of stored honey - which is space limited.  That also means, not much honey can be harvested if those smaller units are going to survive a long, northern winter.


We also know that even feral colonies have a minimum size cavity selection - with AHB willing to go into smaller spaces, and consequently, may not have enough space to store enough food for a long winter.


There is a purpose for European bee colonies to select larger cavities, if available.


Keeping bees for enjoyment, minimal pollination requirements like a backyard garden, Tom's swarms or Al's Eco Beeboxes, and dare I say, top bar hives work fine.


Want a honey crop or pollination of crops - the trade-offs are about the same as veal and lamb.


Quick crop, not much of it, and if the goal is to feed the work, beef from full-grown cattle and mutton from sheep goes a lot farther.


Finally, from our own data, I suspect swarming from varroa infested colonies serves a three-fold service:  1) the swarm has a brood break and may reduce its varroa load by the time house-keeping is set up in the new home, 2) the parent colonies loses bees and the varroa that the swarm carries, again reducing the number of mites in the colony (the parent colony), and 3) when a colony swarms, we've seen time after time a major temperature spike inside the colony just as the swarm is about to and during the process of leaving.  The temperatures comes down after the swarm has left and the parent colony has time to settle down, re-organize, and resume thermoregulation.  That heat spike is an acute incident - and since varroa is known to be somewhat susceptible to elevated hive temperatures, I suspect that the heat spike may actually serve a purpose in killing off a portion of the varroa remaining in the parent colony.










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