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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Catherine Adamson <cadamson AT alumni.unc.edu>
  • To: David DiGiuseppe <david AT daviddg.com>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] two swarms question
  • Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2012 13:24:31 -0400

David, it's not uncommon for hives to swarm multiple times. This sounds like an afterswarm to me.  Hopefully Juliana Rangel can weigh in and share her expertise.

www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm

The first and biggest swarm contains the mated queen, and then one or more subsequent smaller swarm(s) (called "afterswarms") may happen.  Afterswarms contain at least one virgin queen.  The simplified story that beeks usually tell about swarming and virgin queens is that the first virgin to emerge stings the rest to death.  But if the workers find that conditions are right to produce more swarms, the workers will sometimes allow several virgins to hatch and herd them apart from one another so that they do not fight.  Then all but one or two accompany afterswarms once they can fly.

The first swarm typically leaves on or just after the day the queen cells are capped.  That's about day 8 of queen development.  The virgins hatch on day 16, and they don't typically fly to mate for another 5-6 days after hatching.  Assuming that the queen would fly to mate on the first day she could fly, then the afterswarm would leave around the same time.  That would be about two weeks or a little longer after your first swarm.

-Catherine

On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 12:58 PM, Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com> wrote:
This is a good question.  I don't have a good concise explanation.  Expect the unexpected.  There are very few slam dunks in beekeeping.

Our guest on Thursday will be Juliana Rangel.  She is a bit of an expert on swarms so I expect she will have as good of an answer as anyone.

This link still doesn't answer your question, but does give a bit of background on the work that Juliana has done.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8562000/8562904.stm

Lewis


On Apr 8, 2012, at 10:13 PM, David DiGiuseppe wrote:

Hi all,

My hive swarmed about 2 weeks ago. (Not to my surprise--I'd been too stinkin' busy to keep up with them.)

The same hive swarmed again this morning. This one caught me by surprise. 

Sadly, like the last time, the swarm is on a branch about 50 feet high. (Anyone have a sky-hook?)

My question--is it odd that the same hive would swarm twice in 2 weeks?
-----  ------  ----- -----   
David D


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