Can swarms return to orginal hive?

Aroc · July 07, 2019, 11:12:22 PM

So let?s assume a swarm has found a home without a beeks help. If we did a split it?s widely understood the foragers may return to the original hive because that?s what they?ve oriented to.

Why wouldn?t a swarm do the same thing?

The reason I ask is I caught a swarm from my yard the other day and noticed after a couple days there were only a fraction of the bees in there. Could the foragers gone back to the original hive? I?m going into the hive tomorrow to check things out and look for a queen.

TheHoneyPump · July 08, 2019, 03:59:24 AM

Interesting question.
Anyone here have a personal network that could perhaps tap Thomas Seely on the shoulder and ask?

BeeMaster2 · July 08, 2019, 08:21:27 AM

When bees swarm they have a switch more mechanism that allows them to forget the old location and they reorient to the new hive. If the queen dies while in route, the bees can, supposedly return to the hive. I rather doubt this because I catch a lot of swarms and often arrive after swarms have left. There are always scouts that are left behind because they were in the field when the bees left for a new location. These bees usually stay at this old location for several days with no queen. Quite often I have to go back and vacuum a ball of bees up to make the customer happy. I would think if they could remember the old hive location, they would return to it pretty quick.
Now placing a swarm in an Apiary is another problem. Quite often the swarm is sitting next to a good queen right hive and the bees often decide to move in with that hive. Happens a lot.

By the way, I think it was in the Honey Bee Biology book that I read about swarms forgetting their old location.
Jim Altmiller

Michael Bush · July 08, 2019, 09:10:40 AM

Most of the bees in a swarm are young bees that don?t know their way home.

Donovan J · July 08, 2019, 12:44:42 PM

Quote from: Michael Bush on July 08, 2019, 09:10:40 AM
Most of the bees in a swarm are young bees that don?t know their way home.

Huh. I read that it was the older bees that could fly better.

herbhome · July 10, 2019, 09:27:02 AM

This is interesting. I have noticed that swarms will draw out comb, quick, fast and in a hurry. This leads me to believe the population is mostly younger bees.

2Sox · July 11, 2019, 11:57:05 PM

A few years ago, I caught one of my swarms in a neighbors tree. I saw them swarm and tracked them there. Made more room in the hive they swarmed from and put them back in. They stayed.

Ben Framed · July 12, 2019, 12:09:22 AM

Quote from: herbhome on July 10, 2019, 09:27:02 AM
This is interesting. I have noticed that swarms will draw out comb, quick, fast and in a hurry. This leads me to believe the population is mostly younger bees.

I have only caught one swarm, but I am amazed at how fast they drew out comb and multiplied! Amazing. Though the flow here has really slowed down, they are almost ready for a super, after having two deeps good to go. This was not a large swarm either. This queen is laying like there is no tomorrow!!

BeeMaster2 · July 12, 2019, 12:40:06 AM

Here is a picture of a swarm that moved into this trap on April 4, 2016 and a picture of the comb they built by April 17. The trap had one drawn medium comb and 9 empty medium frames. All of the frames were drawn out plus the comb in the bottom.

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Jim Altmiller

Aroc · July 13, 2019, 09:24:35 PM

I believe in this instance after further investigation what I had was a swarm with multiple virgin queens.

After 10 days I went in for an inspection and saw no larvae but a bunch of eggs. I figured she must have been a virgin and still needed a mating flight. The rest of the bees must have swarmed again with either the original queen or another virgin.