Interesting event last week. 

 I have often swapped positions of stronger and weaker colonies in a yard to lend the weaker colony (often a newer nuc I am growing up for overwintering) some strength.  This comes from NC Bee Inspector Lewis Cauble's frequent advice in our club that this is an easy way to help out.  Indeed it has succeeded all of the other times I remember using it.

I just did this with a strong colony and a "this year's nuc" which is lagging a bit behind it's sister nucs in growing into a second 8 frame Medium. 

The next day I arrived to find a pile of dead bees in the entrance of the stronger hive.  

I suspect that these are the hapless foragers returning to the former location of their home only to be massacred by the guards of the stronger hive left in its place ~midday. There was no such event at the weaker hive.

One more item.  This is the hive, among all of the others, which has consistently had 0-1 Varroa/300 bees all season so far.  Could it bee that at least a part of this Varroa success story is hypervigilance to stray drifters at the front door?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Cheers, Brad
Chapel Hill, NC

             ***********************************************
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