They don’t always. If there is room in the parent hive for the cluster to form
(one can sometimes see the cluster through an observation window), those bees
will sometimes leave and fly straight to their new location (assuming the
scouts have located one). If not, the bees cluster. This serves several
purposes. It gives time for the bees to sort themselves out as between
remainers and leavers; bees fly back and forth between the hive and the
cluster. If one dusts the cluster with powdered sugar, white bees will appear
at the hive that has swarmed. This is one way of telling which hive the swarm
comes from. Clustering also gives time for the scouts to find a new home if
they haven’t done so already.
Leaving straight for a new home is something I occasionally observe. It is
something I’ve discussed with the bee researcher Prof Tom Seeley. From what I
see, it’s not a question of the bees drifting off to cluster afar. It’s more a
case of forming the Zeppelin that is typical of bees moving off from the swarm
cluster and going high and fast in a definite direction with scout bees herding
the others along (what Seeley calls streaker bees because they look like little
streaks from below as they fly fast from the rear to the front through the
cluster to direct it).
Gareth
On 8 Jul 2021, at 13:34, Beka Vaughan <rebekah_vaughan@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I was just thinking the same! Perhaps they feel safe enough to stay even
though a suitable new home hasn't been found yet?
Thursday, 08 July 2021, 01:32pm +01:00 from Barbara Elizabeth Robinson
liz20swan@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:liz20swan@xxxxxxxxx>:
So here is a question posed by my other half.
Why does a swarm collect on something - sometimes staying overnight - instead
of going straight off to a new home?
