Is this a mating flight?

[EdNewman]

Hi All,
Curious to get the pro's opinion of what's going on in attached photo.

A bit of background, the hive on the left in the photo are really swarmy and for the past two years have up and left at the first sign of good weather (April last year, May the year before and May again this year), they even go before queen cells are sealed. This year I thought I would do a bailey comb change to mainly replace the frames but secondly to try and stop them swarming. Despite them having half drawn the combs in the second brood box (so plenty of space) they still swarmed three weeks ago. On inspection I found 14 charged but not sealed queen cells. I did a desperate search for the queen, but couldn't find her (this was confirmed with an inspection a week later and there were no eggs to be seen). Anyway, I got rid of all but two of the queen cells and then went on holiday.
By my calculations the queens should have hatched last Friday. My next door neighbour told me that he thought the bees swarmed on Friday and then I have just watched them doing some odd things (see photo). I have seen this hive swarm a few times but this didn't look like a swarm.

What we had was a lot of bees (not a prime swarm size, but a lot) flying above the hive and flying off in all directions for about 10 minutes, they then slowly returned to the hive and bearded the front before going back inside.

So is this preparations for a swarm or a mating flight or something else?

Cheers,
Ed.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Sorry - too much of a newbie to offer any thoughts.

But your planters look as if they need watering.

Dusty

 

[enrico]

Probably a mating flight, yes

 

[farbee]

OK. So give me a clue as to why you think it is a mating flight. Just some bees gathered at entrance from what I can see with by uneducated eyes.

 

[EdNewman]

Hi Farbee, I admit the picture isn't great, you can't see the flying bees in it. I apologize for the wall of text, but all the info was there, two queen cells, both of which should probably be doing their mating flight this week and "a lot of bees flying above the hive".

Thanks for all the answers, I'm hoping what has happened is a mating flight on Friday and another today, hopefully they will settle down now and sort me out some honey. This have has been a pain with them swarming, but they have done very well for me with honey and varoa, whilst always present, seems to be kept in check by the hive.

Ed.

 

[Hawklord]

I don't know the answer to your question, but would it stop them being swarmy if you put a queen cell in from the other colony?

 

[EdNewman]

I don't know the answer to your question, but would it stop them being swarmy if you put a queen cell in from the other colony?

Potentially, assuming the colony the QC came from wasn't a swarmy colony. But I want to keep this strain going despite their tendency to swarm as they have been a very good colony as far as honey production and low varoa go.

Ed.

 

[Excession]

What time was it?

At a recent Jochen Plugfluger lecture he said that mating flights normally occur between 1400 and 1500.

Which seems pretty punctual!

(Ps check out the name dropping! I wasn't even there!!)

 

[EdNewman]

What time was it?

At a recent Jochen Plugfluger lecture he said that mating flights normally occur between 1400 and 1500.

Which seems pretty punctual!

Hmmm if it was a mating flight they were a little early, I took the photo at about 1.30.

Ed.

 

[Excession]

Sounds close enough! And inline with what should be happening from your post.

 

[Finman]

.
I have had tens of mating hives on cottage yard and I have not seen any extra activity near hives when mating. Hives are 3 frame nucs.

The queen makes several orientation fligts before mating..

Ordinary mating happens as 7 day old. Queen makes several flights during a day, and matings happens during 2-3 day .
Queen is out only couple of minutes and it tells that it does not go very far. It goes to nearest drone swarm.

Often, when queen returns, it has a drone string in it abdomen. And some bees are wondering, what is that.

So,I have looked mating nucs tens of times and I haven't seen any swarm formulation or extra tension in the hive. They just are there.

If you take a queen and you throw it to air, it returns quickly like an arrow to its hive.

.

 

[masterBK]

You left TWO queen cells so what you have photograhhed is probably a cast swarm with the first queen to emerge (and yes they can fly the day they emerge) . NEVER wise to leave a swarmy colony with more than one cell as they are more likely to swarm than not.

 

[Hivemaker.]

NEVER wise to leave a swarmy colony with more than one cell as they are more likely to swarm than not.

I don't believe it is wise to leave a swarmy colony with any cells.

 

[mbc]

I don't believe it is wise to leave a swarmy colony with any cells.

do tell

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Jochen Plugfluger (Ps check out the name dropping! I wasn't even there!!)

Dropping that name in a restaurant would be a sure way of having the Heimlich maneuvre practiced on you!
Sounds like something old miners used to hack up after their first smoke of the morning

But yes - that photo is almost identical to one of a mating swarm we were shown in a recent talk.