Garth wrote:
 
> Hi All/John
>
> John, you mentioned the large number of swarms being removed in the
> Arizona area.
>
> I think the important thing to remember here is that the Bees in
> africa don't have a seasonal swarming urge, as much as a seasonal
> swarming result. The queen burns out and they swarm. Hence, if one
> has a strong flow in mid winter in many areas here, the bees swarm
> after a while. If there is not a flow, they wait till the next one
> and swarm then.
 
Garth, now you've got me interested - I guess that with all our history
with "Holstein" queens, I've not thought of swarming as a response to
queen "burn-out". The fall swarms here don't seem to have so much to do
with blooming as with end of warm weather, but the swarming happens
before "our africans" start to run out of stored food, and tapers off
with cool weather. And no, I don't believe all those big swarms are
absconding, as we used to see. ....I'm confused.....
--
-----------------------------------------------------------
John F. Edwards
Biological Lab. Technician
"Feral Bee Tracker and AHB Identifier"
Carl Hayden Bee Research Center
2000 E. Allen Road
Tucson, Arizona 85719
 
Office: 520-670-6380, ext.110
Fax:    520-670-6493
 
Geog. location:
32.27495 N
110.9402 W
 
Lab webpages:
http://198.22.133.109/
http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/home/edwards/index.html
http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/home/edwards/jephotos.htm