Can a mating flight look like a swarm?

[Ely]

I have bees piling out of a nuc that was and a/s. The nuc was instpected a few days ago and I heard a queen piping through her cell. The nuc only had 3 frames of brood.

 

[Illo]

How many QCs were in the nuc?

 

[Ely]

2 I think but fairly close to one another. Think I'll go back to leaving 1 cell.

 

[Illo]

Ah.

So...in answer to you question, yes a mating flight CAN look like a small swarm, but I suspect this was a cast. You may only know when you go in, but given there is a virgin in there at the moment it may be prudent to leave it a while...if you're sure that there were only 2?

I'm a relative newbie, so would be interested to see if any of the longer standing members agree.

LJ

 

[Finman]

.
I have mated in nucs and hives hundreds of queens and I have never seen any swarming model around the hive. In the afternoon young bees come to cleansing flight. That is often like swarming.

A queen needs for mating flights 1-3 days.

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/entomology/apiculture/pdfs/Tarpy&Page.2000 copy.pdf

.

 

[itma]

... The nuc was instpected a few days ago and I heard a queen piping through her cell. ...

"A few days" is long enough for the princess to become flight-worthy.


If the cloud of bees returned to their own hive, bearded on the outside, fanning - and then made their way back inside ... then it could indeed be a mating flight.
On the other hand, if the cloud of bees headed off into the middle distance that would be a cast.


My personal suspicion is that, at least sometimes, many of the bees don't actually know what is happening. Which may be why they could mistake a mating flight for a departure, and go along with the excitement.

 

[Summerslease]

"A few days" is long enough for the princess to become flight-worthy.


If the cloud of bees returned to their own hive, bearded on the outside, fanning - and then made their way back inside ... then it could indeed be a mating flight.
On the other hand, if the cloud of bees headed off into the middle distance that would be a cast.


My personal suspicion is that, at least sometimes, many of the bees don't actually know what is happening. Which may be why they could mistake a mating flight for a departure, and go along with the excitement.

This happened to me only a couple of days ago. Having left one queen cell to hatch, and keeping my fingers crossed I didn't expect to get a 'your bees are swarming' call. I got there 10 minutes later to see a few hundred bees flying around nearby bushes looking a little confused and the rest returning to the hive. I inspected the next day and for the first time heard the queen piping . I found her on one of the outer frames. Very skittish so I closed up fairly quickly. Now I wait for the pollen being taken in and will inspect again in three weeks.

 

[Ely]

It was a swarm. They were unreachable too. Still learned a few things from this thread so it was worth posting. Thanks

 

[sandysman]

We had this discussion at our BKA meeting this evening and the consensus of opinion is yes it can. A number of our members have described seeing bees issuing from the hive containing a virgin queen only to see the whole lot return to the hive a short while later. I have not experienced it myself however but a number of our members have.
Andy

 

[buzz lightyear]

Me too. Saw them leave, then 1/2 an hour or so later saw them come back. Very releaved I was too!

 

[beeno]

This happened to me only a couple of days ago. Having left one queen cell to hatch, and keeping my fingers crossed I didn't expect to get a 'your bees are swarming' call. I got there 10 minutes later to see a few hundred bees flying around nearby bushes looking a little confused and the rest returning to the hive. I inspected the next day and for the first time heard the queen piping . I found her on one of the outer frames. Very skittish so I closed up fairly quickly. Now I wait for the pollen being taken in and will inspect again in three weeks.

Hi Summerslease,
In these circumstances IMHO I would say you missed one!

 

[beeno]

It was a swarm. They were unreachable too. Still learned a few things from this thread so it was worth posting. Thanks

Hi Ely,
Brutally honest as always. Many thanks for posting as I am a IMHO firm believer that most of these so called mating flights are indeed swarms or aborted swarms!

 

[MJBee]

History:-
I squished the queen of a particularly nasty colony and split it into 2 Nucs. the next day I placed a sealed queen cell into both. 3 days later both queens had emerged.
Yesterday I was trimming a hedge and heard the distinctive sound of a swarm!!
Traced the activity to one of the nucs watched and waited and after 5 minutes all the bees had returned to the nuc and were bearding the front.

The queen emerged at the latest on Sunday (16 days) so was Tuesday's flight mating? if so very early, or orientation? An inspection on 14 July will reveal all - I am trying to be patient and not have a sneaky peek honest.

 

[Vramin]

I had 2 nucs where, 5 days after calculated emergence of queen, what appeared to be a swarm emerged, flew around for about 20 minutes, and then returned. Same thing happened the following day, both times between 2-3pm. The Sky was full of bees and the noise quite intense, just the same as a swarm.

6 days later foraging pattern changed - almost every bee was returning with pollen. Another week later when bee inspector visited we found eggs in 1 hive and larvae in the other, so I'm sure they were mating flights, although had my mentor not told me that this was probably the case, I would have put money on it being a swarm.