The matter of so-called “swarmy” bees came up in conversation with one of my beek buddies the other day, when I mentioned to him that one of our pioneer nuc suppliers/breeders had imported eggs from Ontario to deal with increased swarming in her stock.  Her stock had been built by her father who had made too many nucs with swarm cells for too many years, she said.  Remember that we’ve had importation restrictions here on the Island of Newfoundland since 1985 and therefore no free movement of genetics here for 35 years.

My buddy said, “I don’t like that term ‘swarmy’. It’s their natural reproductive method. Talking about ‘swarmy bees’ is like talking about ‘hoppy rabbits’.”

And yet, in popular musings among beekeepers you will often hear admonitions and cautions related to building stock from swarms or swarm cells. Our beekeeping literature points to excessive swarming as a heritable trait that can be bred out of the stock.

Sammataro and Avitabile point to “genetics or race of bees” as a reason for swarming (presumably excessive swarm tendency) in THE BEEKEEPER’S HANDBOOK (p.155). M.E.A. McNeil says, “Swarm cells can promote a tendency to swarm, since swarming behavior has a strong genetic component” (“Production of Queens and Package Bees.” THE HIVE AND THE HONEY BEE. 2015:781).  Also, the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association Tech Transfer Program’s ONTARIO INTRODUCTORY QUEEN REARING MANUAL (2013) says, “Low swarming is highly heritable and sought after by most commercial beekeepers. Low swarming allows for colonies to build up populations at high rates and produce consistent high populations for pollination services and honey yield. Low swarming also reduces the risk of colonies unsuccessfully requeening themselves and loss of preferred genetics. For these reasons, it is not advisable to breed queens produced from swarms or swarming colonies as the progeny may result in more swarming” ( p.26).

Contrast this with BEE-L comment by Richard Cryberg and Bill Hesbach 28 June 2019.  Bill asks, “I’m not sure what swarmy genetics are.  Have these genes been identified?”

I didn’t see a follow-up post that answered Bill’s question. Have I missed something?  In any event, I have the same question.  Can any of you point me clearly to data and/or scientific literature that support the above propositions that building  stock from swarm cells or swarms will result in stock that is prone to swarming?  How is swarming tendency measured/quantified, given that it is “highly heritable,” according to the OBA Tech Transfer Team?

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html