I was talking about swarm traps with a friend and I was wondering about the scouts that check them out. Do hives that are getting ready to swarm send scout bees out before they swarm? Or do they wait until they leave the hive? I've seen swarms that hang around for days but I also have seen them leave within hours. It seems to me that it would take a quite a bit of time for the scouts to find a new home if they didn't get a head's up before they swarmed. Just was wondering if there was any proof either way.
CAO,
Your older bees, scout bees, regularly are checking out new sites. When the hive swarms, the scouts often know where good sites are which speeds up the process of finding a new site.
Jim Altmiller
Sorry, correction. Scout bees are your younger fliers. They then mature into foragers. Like adolescent teenagers here there and everywhere.:).
You are correct. I found this:
Gilley (1998) identified the nest-site scouts by examining the age distribution of the bees who engaged in scouting activities for both prime swarms and afterswarms. Statistical differences were found between the age distributions of the swarm and parental colony, the scouts and the swarm and the scouts and the foragers. The median age of the swarm bees was lower than that of the colony bees, that of the scouts was higher than that of the swarm bees and that of the scouts was slightly less than that of the foragers. These results suggest that the nest-site scouts are primarily middle aged bees which have foraging or flight experience.
Jim Altmiller
My guess is "it varies". I have seen them make comb and stay there when they didn't find a place. I have also followed them from the hive to the hollow tree, so it is likely different at times.
There will be scout bees before they decide on a home. Sometimes so many scout bees coming and going that you think a swarm has already moved in, until you look inside.
Quote from: Michael Bush on April 17, 2023, 06:29:19 AM
There will be scout bees before they decide on a home. Sometimes so many scout bees coming and going that you think a swarm has already moved in, until you look inside.
I had that very thing happen just a couple days ago....
Phillip