On 12/9/2011 1:04 PM, Peter L Borst wrote:
> This is an extremely interesting phenomenon, rarely reported for temperate bees (Janscha 1771; Knight 1807). but commonplace in Africa (Hepburn 1993). It is well documented for some, but not all African honeybee races (adansonii, capensis, scutellata, intermissa).
>    
  Well I can tell you now I've seen it happen. I think it was 1985. We 
placed 600 colonies in doubles in Chazy Orchards (New York) withoug 
reversing or equalizing brood. They were strong bees, and the weather 
had been poor. Figured we'd get the bee work done in the orchard. Wrong.

About every colony must have swarmed...at the same time. Every hive drop 
throughout the orchard had multiple swarms hanging in the trees. These 
weren't normal swarms. They were enormous swarms, many times larger than 
any normal colony could throw. Conglomerate swarms?

Mike

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