>I came to the conclusion that they were responding to favorable conditions
based on evolutionary memory. They have no "idea" that winter is coming and
swarm out under the worst possible circumstances.
Once a colony reaches a certain size and is full of sealed brood and
beebread, what other reason is there for it to exist, other than to attempt
to reproduce (via the issuance of drones and swarms), even if the chance of
one of those drones mating or of the swarm surviving is small?
--
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html