>The colonies that  spent most

> of the spring on the west coast, building large drone   populations, were
> extremely prone to swarming
>

Would expect so!  Colonies only rear drones if there is plenty of pollen
coming in, and kick them out when it stops (unless they are queenless).  So
the presence of a lot of drones implies that the colonies got good
nutrition, and would likely be large and ready to swarm.

Many of mine are ready to swarm coming out of almonds.  If I simply leave
them in the orchards for another week to go into pollen deficit (due to
lack of pollen after almond bloom) they will cease drone rearing and tear
down swarm cells.

With regard to whether some minimal number of drones need to be present in
order for a colony to swarm (as opposed to extra drones), I still haven't
seen a conclusive study.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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