On Tue, 21 May 1996, Laura Downey wrote:
 
> Yes, the colony is more established underneath the original hive than
> in front.  I even found some comb filled with honey underneath when I
> removed the bulk of the bees.
 
Ah hah. And I'll bet you'll find eggs and larvae when you look
closely. Of course, that's not so easy where they are now.
 
> It is so hot and humid here in Maryland that when I worked the
> bees on Sunday, I almost dropped from heat exhaustion.
 
Ooh, I hate you :-), it's cold & miserable here.
 
> As for the books being confused about swarms and supercedures, does
> this mean that swarms don't necessarily result from supercedures?  My
> hive did appear to have some "emergency" cells which indicated a
> supercedure was taking place.
 
With most things to do with bees, generalisations are a mistake.
However, my mentor here said that if you have two cells _only_,
well -- maybe three at a push, near the top-centre of one
frame then the bees were superceding and would not normally
swarm. If there are more cells than that, they are swarming.
Three or more cells around the periphery of the nest is almost
certainly swarming behaviour.
 
I think that the word 'supercede' gets used in its English
language sense as a general term for a new queen replacing
an old. People sometimes ignore or misunderstand the other
evidence.
 
I doubt that a mature healthy colony would supercede in the
spring.  If they are weak they may, or if it's autumn (fall),
or if they are a newly arrived swarm in a new nest with an old
queen - yes, certainly. But if they are reasonably strong or
better, my first guess would be swarming.  It's what healthy
bees *want* to do in the spring!
 
Regards,
--
Gordon Scott   [log in to unmask]      [log in to unmask] (work)
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