In message <[log in to unmask]>, Dee
Lusby <[log in to unmask]> writes
>Certainly the queen isn't running back and forth
>between the top and bottom part of the unlimited broodnest?
>How would you rationalize this behaviour?
Why not?
I see this kind of pattern frequently. Nothing unusual about it.
We operate with excluders for management purposes throughout the early
summer and in late June go over to unlimited nests to get lots and lots
of bees for our key mid August flowering.
It is not unusual at all to see brood present in odd places, especially
if the hive and/or its surroundings are very warm. It is also common for
the bottom box to contain relatively little brood for some parts of this
period, almost becoming a nectar dump for the field force, and the main
active nest being above it, moving downwards as the upper boxes fill.
Seeing only a few patches of brood and eggs in the bottom box of four
would be something I would expect at certain times and circumstances,
and consider quite normal, especially if I have given the colony an
excess of drawn comb head space. You can often also get one side of
brood away up the hive, seemingly at random, but of course as the season
draws to a close, the night-time temps drop away, and the late crop
fills the upper boxes, it all tends to re-rationalise and reconfigures
back to normality.
Next spring its just the same queen that is there.
If the temperature profile in the hive and its surroundings are suitable
they can exhibit some seemingly quite odd behaviour as regards broodnest
organisation, but if the imperative to keep it all tight and together
for temperature control is absent it seems she will lay just about
anywhere and will quite happily jump about all over the place. Chaotic
nests are not so common as the small patches in the bottom box, and are
not apparently linked to anything much more than temperature and heavy
nectar flow, and re-organise once conditions stabilise again to the bees
normal range.
Different bees, different climate. Not sure what conclusions, if any can
be drawn that are relevant to Arizona, but was surprised that it was
mooted that the queen could not be doing this. With us she does, and
very commonly.
--
Murray McGregor
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