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Date: | Thu, 26 Jun 1997 22:46:48 -0700 |
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On Tue, 17 Jun 1997, Ian Watson wrote:
> Hello all
>
> Here's a conundrum for you. At least it appears to be one to me....
> I was looking through a colony that I got about a week or so ago as a
> swarm. So far only 4 frames have brood in them. On one frame I saw at
> least 4 Queen cells. All but one were at or near the bottom of the frame,
> and the other was half way up. So they should be considered Swarm Cells;
> but why would a very recent swarm, swarm again, especially when there is a
> lot of room in the colony and 6 frames not even drawn out yet?
>
> Any thoughts?
>
Hi Ian,
Swarming has many trigers. Not just conjestion in the brood nest.
Genetics will drive some bees to swarm with very few bees and brood in the
hive. African bees have shown that tendency to swarm up to 10 times in a
year.
I was over at a beekeepers place last night looking over a problem of
package bees of this year swarming with 1 1/2 deep boxs. The bottem boxs
were too full. Brood and honey wall to wall. Some drone brood was on the
bottem bars that did get in the way of proper air flow in the hive.
I feel that some pathogens will cause bees to swarm.I have seen bees
swarm with sick bees left behind. The bees were not checked for
viruses.The bees left behind did die. That is counter to most litature.
I think there are plenty of , what if's when it comes to swarming. For
the Honey Bee to be around for so long it needs a very complex set of
genetic controls to take on and survives millions of years of changes on
this earth. The truth is, one line answers don't fit the Honey Bee.We
learn more evry day. God did a great job and when he says, Honey is good
and pure.We should be careful in what we put in a hive , for we can change
there behavior with chemicals and by our breeding.
Best Regards
Roy
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