Mating swarm or cast?

[Fritillary]

What happens if you inadvertently shake a mating swarm into a skep? Would they all attempt to return home at the earliest opportunity?

Or is the fact that a small swarm does stay inside the skep for more than a few minutes, a definite indication that it is not a mating swarm but a cast?

 

[Finman]

What happens if you inadvertently shake a mating swarm into a skep? Would they all attempt to return home at the earliest opportunity?

Or is the fact that a small swarm does stay inside the skep for more than a few minutes, a definite indication that it is not a mating swarm but a cast?

There is no such like mating swarm. Mating nuc I know what it is.

Why you want to put a swarm into skep? You get only trouble about it.

Put a small swarm into a proper size nuc or unite it to another swarm.

Smallest swarm what I have caught is 1/2 frame.

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[enrico]

After not seeing a mating swarm in 40 years I couldn't answer your question. Have you seen one?

 

[Finman]

After not seeing a mating swarm in 40 years I couldn't answer your question. Have you seen one?

I have had hudreds of mating hives, but never seen outside any mating happenings. What I can see at afternoon is the drone's string in queens abdomen. And often I cannot find the virgin in the nuc, but it is there in the evening.

 

[Fritillary]

I've seen 2 mating swarms so far.
One flew out of its home under a neighbour's eaves, into a magnolia bush, and then about 30mins later all flew home again.

Here I saw one come out into a bush in a big cloud, then return to their hive without really settling at all.

Have found the skep works really well for actually catching a swarm, and transporting it, before introducing the bees into a hive. Well, When I say 'skep', it's in fact a laundry basket with a tightly fitting lid! They seem to like it in there and start to build comb quickly if not housed in a hive more or less straightaway.

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

Had one last week on a low apple tree
Set up nuc on sheet as they seemed wrapped to trunk so no way of getting to shake straight into box
One shake and they took off into air and returned to hive that had a newly emerged queen a few days earlier

 

[JWF]

I have seen a similar thing to that which Tony and Fritillary report. Frantic swarming activity which settled in a neighbour's tree, then thirty minutes they returned to the hive.

The colony had a newly emerged queen and I assumed that I had missed another QC, but inspection revealed no other QCs in the hive. Did they get over excited when the virgin queen went on a mating flight? No idea!

 

[Fritillary]

I don't know what it should be called, if not 'mating swarm'. Coming-Out Party??

Don't know what I have here at the moment. Half a small cast I should think, as the other half flew off who knows where when I took my eyes off them for 5 mins!

- 2 of my splits are just past virgin emergence stage, which is why I asked the question.

 

[Beefriendly]

After not seeing a mating swarm in 40 years I couldn't answer your question.

Not seen bees kept in a skep for over 40 years either.....

 

[Finman]

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If the swarm does not have a queen, or you kill it, the swarm return to home.

If you try go change the swarm queen when swarming, bees return to home.

Clipped queen swarm hangs 30 somewhere and then return to home. AS will not succeed then because bees think that they have swarmed. They do not return to old site, when you move the old hive to a new place.

 

[Finman]

I don't know what it should be called, if not 'mating swarm'. Coming-Out Party??

Don't know what I have here at the moment. Half a small cast I should think, as the other half flew off who knows where when I took my eyes off them for 5 mins!

- 2 of my splits are just past virgin emergence stage, which is why I asked the question.

When new queens emerge, they surely not go to mate.

Ants have mating swarms and termites.
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[Bakerbee]

I had what i now understand was a virgin queen cause alot of excitement when going for her mating flights. I thought my bees were attempting to swarm but now i believe they were dpilling out in great excitement flying around in their thousands for about ten minutesthen sll going back into the hive. The timing of this matches with a virgin queens emergence a few days earlier.

 

[Fritillary]

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If the swarm does not have a queen, or you kill it, the swarm return to home.

If you try go change the swarm queen when swarming, bees return to home.

Clipped queen swarm hangs 30 somewhere and then return to home. AS will not succeed then because bees think that they have swarmed. They do not return to old site, when you move the old hive to a new place.

Well, whatever this behaviour is, in both instances I've seen, queens weren't clipped, and there was no outside interference. In the first case, I'd caught a prime swarm from a colony, and 14 days later there appeared from the original colony a swarm which hung in a bush and then went home again. In both cases also the colonies subsequently had laying queens. That's all I know really.

 

[Finman]

I had what i now understand was a virgin queen cause alot of excitement when going for her mating flights. I thought my bees were attempting to swarm but now i believe they were dpilling out in great excitement flying around in their thousands for about ten minutesthen sll going back into the hive. The timing of this matches with a virgin queens emergence a few days earlier.

Home bees make cleansing flights about 14-15 alock, and they like swarm outside.

Virgin makes mating flights after 7 days old.

I have looked tens of times into natings nucs, when the queen is on its mating flight. There is no excitement in the nucs.

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[Fritillary]

Home bees make cleansing flights about 14-15 alock, and they like swarm outside.
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[Bakerbee]

Very interesting finman thanks. It was quite a sight for sure. I just couldnt understand what they were doing. The sound of them all flying about was wonderful. Then as quick as they started they all dutifully filed on back in. They did this 3 days in a row. Once during a bbq! Luckily our garden is large and they were not near us but it caused some interesting "entertaiment" for our guests. They were fascinated and went on to learn a bit about bees that afternoon, asking sll sorts of questions.

 

[Finman]

Very interesting finman thanks. It was quite a sight for sure. I just couldnt understand what they were doing..

They are doing poo. They eat and make poo, just like you. Nothing interesting in it.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Have seen a few 'mating swarms', I'm lucky enough to have most of my mating nucs in the apiary behind the garden – calling it a swarm is just a convenient word – the bees just get a bit excited with the queen and her escorts going off to the DCA and decide to follow. They usually realise their mistake rather quickly, mill around the apiary rather like a swarm arriving then land on the nuc and sheepishly troop back in.
Each time I have witnessed this, it has emanated from a nuc wher I knew the queen had emerged a short while before and when I’ve checked the hive a week or so later, I’ve found eggs.
I did see once, a small swarm emanating from a mating nuc and settling in the apiary hedge, as they made no move to return to the hive that evening, I thought that maybe I had missed a QC and there was another virgin in there, so I collected it and put it in another nuc. It came to nothing and I soon had laying workers. The queen in the original nuc mated and went on to head a strong colony.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

They are doing poo. They eat and make poo, just like you. Nothing interesting in it.

And some just talk it.

 

[Finman]

And some just talk it.

And some fairytales. You have wonderfull bees. Lucky boy . You bees swarm for happines!

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