I caught a swarm yesterday at the base of a Magnolia tree. Once hived I noticed workers push out 3-4 drones, stinging them to death. I also found about four drones at the base of the tree with organs pulled out, having just mated, my guess.
I'm thinking the queen is mated and the bees were keen on setting up shop minus the drones.
what's your take?
...JP
For 3-4 days after the pop up bees swarmed they were killing drones...too big a drain on the resources I suppose.
Scott
Scott, didn't you get the pop up late summer, early fall, can't remember off hand? I'm thinking what you experienced may have been them kicking drones out for winter prep, no?
On a side note we did have a pretty good front come through last night, perhaps this swarm was anticipating the much cooler weather.
...JP
JP, I got the pop up last summer. They just swarmed a few weeks ago and ousted the drones shortly after.
Scott