Do full sisters have a preference to swarm together?

Started by The Bix, May 20, 2011, 12:36:20 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

The Bix

Since a virgin queen mates with multiple drones I understand that there are many half-sisters in each colony.  When a healthy hive swarms multiple times, is there a preference for full sisters to leave with a full sister virgin queen after the initial swarm? 

Reason I ask is that I picked up two or three separate swarms from the same location (within 15')...and there is a bee tree across the street (about 75' away).  The first swarm was picked up about two weeks ago and had very dark colored bees (looked like Carniolans), the next one or two swarms were of Italian heritage, looked very different.  My first thought after looking at the bees close up was that they issued out of a different colony.  But, is it possible that they came out of the same original mother colony?

Just curious.

Finski

.
Language barrier NOT included

Brian D. Bray

A feral hive will swarm often because it has limited space, this is especially true of colonys located in tree cavities.
The color veriatiation between worker bees within a hive can have a wide range from mostly yellow to nearly black and still be of the Italian genus.  Carnolians, Caucasians, and Russians will veriations of gray and black with some traces of yellow.

The veriations in color are a good thing, it is an indicator of genitic diversity.

Often swarms in transit will tend to settle in the same place or nearby.  The smell of one swarm having occuppied a given site will attract other swarms to the same place.  Rains between swarms landing in an area might prevent them from landing at the same site but can still cause them to land in the same area.

Swarms for a particular parent hive or apiary will often follow the same or similar flight patterns which is one reason that swarms seem to appear in a given locale year after year.
Life is a school.  What have you learned?   :brian:      The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!