Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Reproductive Swarming


Honey bees reproduce on a colony-wide basis by swarming. Strong, healthy colonies divide to increase the number of colonies and expand into new territory. Swarming is not a safe move for honey bee colonies; it is often not successful. Swarms resting on an exposed tree limb while scout bees search for a suitable permanent nesting cavity may perish in a springtime thunderstorm. The cavity that the bees choose may prove to be unsuitable. However, reproduction on a colony-wide basis must be worth the cost. One benefit is surely the bees’ abandoning old nests and their combs that hold disease spores and environmental chemical toxins. Swarming keeps bees from being completely dependent upon cavities of old, rotting trees for testing places. While reproductive swarming is risky, honey bee colonies stand a chance of effectively doubling their numbers with each swarm. Before swarming, colonies produce a new queen to lay eggs in the old nest, giving the existing colony a fresh start with a productive egg layer to produce young. Beekeepers attempt to reduce swarming because it usually means a loss of honey production for the year or insufficient numbers of bees for pollination service rental fees. Most swarm reduction measures change the conditions that cause swarming or give the bees the impression that the colony has already swarmed.

Today’s photo shows a swarm emitting from a Peace Bee Farm hive. The queen with her wasp-like abdomen is in the center of the mass of bees. If the swarm lights on a tree limb where I am able to catch it, I will have a tidy, though unscheduled, colony expansion. If it flies away, I will have increased the drones with good genetics in surrounding drone concentration areas. My beekeeping friend, The Luddite, caught a large swarm of over-wintered Russian bees from her Maine bee yard, effectively increasing her colony of winter-hearty bees. For honey bees, swarming may be their purpose in life; for the beekeeper, swarming should be a welcomed event.
--Richard

5 comments:

  1. Do you think a swarms lack of survival has anything to do with them being in areas that are not hospitable? So many keeping bees in the city now makes it difficult for swarms to find homes I'm guessing :( I'm glad that our first swarm could venture into the woods behind our home. I hope they survived *fingers crossed. I've always worried about that bunch. They swarmed mid summer last year and I always wondered if they'd have time to build up before the cold hit :( I'm glad our last two swarms we're picked up by other beekeepers.

    If you catch your own swarm and bring them back to your property and put them in a new hive do they tend to stay or is there a chance they'll leave again?

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  2. Standing in the middle of a maelstrom of flight and bee roar, and emerging unscathed carrying a bucket full of bees. Catching my first swarm was one of the most exhilarating experiences I have ever had!

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  3. Michelle,
    Some say that about 20 percent of swarms find a suitable cavity and those that do live for several years. Beekeepers often say that as a rule of thumb bees swarming before the Fourth of July have enough time to build a nest of beeswax and put up enough stores of honey to survive the upcoming winter.

    A tip for keeping a swarm in a hive is to borrow a frame holding open brood from another hive and place it with the swarm. The pheromones from the larvae in the open brood are a strong attractant to the hive.
    --Richard

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  4. Luddite,
    A friend of mine, an avid fisherman, says that he would rather catch a swarm of bees than a five-pound bass.
    --Richard

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  5. My strongest hive swarmed last Sunday. I'd already decided if my hives swarmed this year I was going to let them go. Goo thing since they alighted in a tree about 30 feet above the ground. I wasn't going to climb for them. :)

    The next day while I was at work, my wife saw them take off and later that evening a neighbor down the hill reported on Facebook that a swarm of bees had come to his yard and bee keeper had come to get them. They were almost certainly mine. I'm glad they went to a good home. :)

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