Mark Gosswiller wrote:
>Can anyone tell me: when a hive swarms, does the OLD queen leave with part
>of the hive before the NEW queen has emerged from her cell or is it after
>the new queen has emerged.

Most often the old queen will leave with the swarm before the new queen
emerges.  If she didn't, there would likely be a fight between the queens,
with one of them (most likely the elder) loosing the battle.

BTW, if you've been following the thread on queens "piping" (listen to a
couple samples at Allen Dick's web site -
http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/ ), you've read that at times the queen's
piping sounds can be heard around swarming time.  Many times, the old queen
will pipe shortly before the swarm leaves, with a queen (or queens) piping
back to her from inside their queen cell.  Perhaps this is their way of
confirming the hive will be in good hands after she's gone?  It is also not
uncommon for worker bees to hold virgin queens ready to emerge "captive" in
their cell until the swarm has departed with the old queen.

--David Scribner <[log in to unmask]> - Ballwin, MO, USA
  Niche on the Net! - <www.bigfoot.com/~dscribner>