You provide so much wonderful information.
On Sat, 3 Jul 2021 at 17:01, Gareth John <gj.garethjohn@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yes, I often let the bees sort it out. However, I watch the bees closely
as they move up the board into the hive and, on occasion, I will remove a
queen or two if I see several. The ones I remove are generally the pale
queens as this can be an indication that they have more imported genes
(Buckfast, Carnica, Italian etc). My bees are all mongrels but I like to
keep them with fewer imported genes if possible.
I am far from convinced that the bees allow the queens just to fight, as
is generally suggested. My feeling is that it is more complex than that.
I once saw a queen submit to a rival by becoming catatonic. The other
queen climbed onto this queen’s back, administered a sting (fatal) and then
walked into the hive, followed by the bees. This occurred after
considerable circling of the two queens around each other and general
sizing up.
Gareth
On 3 Jul 2021, at 15:02, Barbara Elizabeth Robinson <liz20swan@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Hi Gareth,
I'm interested in your comment about combining.
Do you let the queens sort themselves out?
Liz.
On Sat, Jul 3, 2021, 14:14 Gareth John <gj.garethjohn@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Of the 15 or so swarms I’ve handled this year, all have been on the small
side. I usually get the occasional whopper, but not this year. So much so
that I have been combining them when hived, two and sometimes three swarms
to a hive.
Gareth
On 3 Jul 2021, at 10:43, Andrew Bax (Redacted sender "andrew.bax" for
DMARC) <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It may be my imagination but all five of the swarms I have collected so
far seem to have been smaller than in previous years. Andrew
