a Pete B snip followed by > my comments.. 
Well, there are a lot of things I remember reading that I can't remember where. Good grief -- look it up! This particular statement isn't even true. Swarming is not cued by faint queen substance; supersedure *might* be. Looks like the bar has been lowered pretty far for qualified writers.

>Well I guess here Pete I will have to disagree.  There are a lot of variable in regards to swarming or supersedure... one of which is thought to be QMP.  We should expect biologically for their to be some 'normal' variation in QMP production in a group of queens and for this substance to decline in production over time for any individual queen in the group.  You rarely see situation where a fresh new queen will swarm (mandibular pheromone is still strong) but second year queens are another thing entirely (with QMP declining and a robust population).

>Basically swarming in year 2 allows the hive to rid themselves of a queen who is still functioning but cannot keep the large population glue together with a declining QMP footprint.  I seem to recall (do not remember where) that a good number of these 'swarm' queens are replaced fairly quickly via supersedure.

Gene in Central Texas...

   

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