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- Oct 4, 2010
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- Location
- Mourne mountains
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- Number of Hives
- 20+
When a hive is going to swarm would good forage be a factor in where they move to?
Darren
Darren
swarming and forage?
- Thread starter biglongdarren
- Start date
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itma
Queen Bee
The swarm typically sets up home about 300 metres away from the original parent colony. (See Winston for the bar graph)
So they are spreading, rather than being on top of each other, but given the notional "3 miles" foraging range, they aren't going to be into a very different forage area.
Seeley's researches indicate that scouts are checking out the merits of the prospective new homes from the point of view of immediate physical characteristics, rather than for example being surrounded by seas of crocuses in spring for early pollen. But that would be a tough bit of scout behaviour to recognise! (As would be the crocuses in mid-summer ...)
/// Added - it is believed that some African bees do actually "migrate" long distances to different forage areas, but they aren't the same bee as the European honeybee. (Again, there's a bit in Winston on that.)
So they are spreading, rather than being on top of each other, but given the notional "3 miles" foraging range, they aren't going to be into a very different forage area.
Seeley's researches indicate that scouts are checking out the merits of the prospective new homes from the point of view of immediate physical characteristics, rather than for example being surrounded by seas of crocuses in spring for early pollen. But that would be a tough bit of scout behaviour to recognise! (As would be the crocuses in mid-summer ...)
/// Added - it is believed that some African bees do actually "migrate" long distances to different forage areas, but they aren't the same bee as the European honeybee. (Again, there's a bit in Winston on that.)
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