At 02:14 PM 7/26/96 +0000, you wrote:
>In the area I live, northeast Kansas, swarming has been unusually bad
>for everyone, I guess because it was an unusually wet spring.  The
>swarms were all very late for this area, all after June 1.  Five of my six
>hives swarmed, one in mid July.
>
>All of my hives that swarmed ended up queenless.  I have heard many
>other beekeepers in the area have had the same  problem.  What causes
>queenlessness after a swarm.  My hives that swarmed all had empty
>queen cells in them.  Where did the queens go?
>
>                                             -Steve Phillips-
>                                               -Perry, KS-
>                                        [log in to unmask]
>
>
Hi Steve
 
Unfortunately I know what causes most of my lost virgin queens.  They are
called Mockingbird and Cardinal.  They sit on the ground in front of the
hives and catch bees.  Ordinarily I don't mind but it would seem that they
catch just about every queen that flies. In that yard, I have only gotten 1
good queen and 1 runt queen mated this year.  The runt was a mistake of
course.  If it weren't illegal, I think I would like to shoot a few and
maybe discourage the rest.
 
Frank Humphrey
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