Thriving ferals

[SDM]

The article was referring mainly to Africanized bees in the states as these are the real usurpation experts.
It did make me wonder whether our bees ever do it and if it's ever noticed. Your observation suggests it certainly can happen.

Happened last year to a weak hive of mine. 7 frames of bees a queen not laying one week and when I turned up the next week with a nuc to unite with them, there was 13 frames of bees and a dark laying queen.
This year an overfilled mating nuc has taken over a single brood drone laying queens hive of about 5 frames of bees. Couldnt say for sure if the mating nuc queen was mated before the usurpation but she was laying soon after. On both occasions there was no evidence of fighting with bees of both types still present.

 

[oxnatbees]

How would you prove these colonies have survived over winter. Would simply seeing bees fly at the very start of the season be good enough? This is a genuine question and not got any agenda.

I walk by most of them every few days on my way to the allotments.
Swarms started in this area mid May.
The surviving colonies were continuously active from early March.
Feel free to call me a liar. Everyone else on this forum does. I simply report what I observe.