Over the years I have had swarms from other, unknown apiaries move into deadouts or simply stacks of empty boxes I left out in the yard.  It has happened at least four times in the past three years, and I just noticed the other day that a new swarm has moved into a stack I left at the end of a line of 10 hives (so make that 5 in four years).  It has become so frequent, that I now leave a couple of stacks of empties with bottom boards and lids set up, basically empty hives, just to catch these swarms.  Sure beats setting up swarm traps in odd places.  For a variety of reasons I know these are not from my hives (no reduction in bee strength, wrong color, unmarked queens or the wrong year, etc.).  A couple of years ago I was even fortunate enough to actually see a swarm move in.  Watching them fly in over the treeline and cover the front of the hive was a wicked cool, impressive, fill-in-your-favorite-adjective experience.  Over the past few years the number of hives in the area has really exploded with apiaries of 25 or more hives within a couple of miles of my yard.  I'm guessing that these are the sources of these free bees.

My questions is: How common is this movement and do others also have this happen?  I suppose a corollary question is: Does this kind of 'illegal alien immigration' bring health risks to my existing colonies?  Given the break in brood rearing, I'm thinking these aren't varroa bombs, and I haven't seen other problems, so just curious.

Bill
Claremont, NH USA

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