On 13 Dec 96, Joel Govostes wrote:
 
> Let me throw out another question.
>
> Does a swarm try to find a new site some (minimum) distance away
> from the parent?  How does this work out as regarding competition
> for available forage, etc.  I have a dim recollection of reading
> somewhere that a swarm won't investigate potential home-sites that
> are too "close" to their origin.  I wonder if anyone can provide
> some info or references.
>
> I have always presumed that swarms that arrive and occupy empty
> hives at my bee-yards have always come from some distance away, and
> not from my own hives there.  Any comments appreciated.
>               Thanks! JWG
 
Winston's  'The Biology Of The Honeybee'  contains references to
research by Gould suggesting that swarms have two opposing
considerations when considering the optimal distance separating the
new nest site from the parental colony.  'It is advantageous for a
swarm to leave the forging range of the parent colony so as to reduce
competition.  On the other hand long distance flights are
energetically expensive.'
 
Experiments have shown that different races move different distances
when swarming.  Italian bees were found to prefer sites with a mean
of 155m from the parent colony.  German bees prefered a mean of 690m.
 Gould's interpretation of the results is that the more winter-adapted
German bees need to collect and store a much larger amount of honey
to survive the winter than the Italian bees and thus move further to
minimise competition with the parent colony.  Perhaps the distance
is also determined by the nectar abundance where the different races evolved?
 It has also been found that different races prefer different cavity
sizes,  the German races preferring larger cavities than the Italian.
 
 
Joe Hemmens