The behaviour of honeybees preparing to swarm

Summary

• 1.

  A 3-frame observation hive was used to study the events leading up to swarming in a colony of bees with a year-old queen.

• 2.

  The first queen cup was built on 28th May and a further seventeen were built between 9th June and 14th July. Four virgins hatched from these cells.

• 3.

  A prime swarm and two casts reduced the strength of the colony from approximately 10,000 bees just before swarming to approximately 1,500 bees finally.

• 4.

  The queen continued to lay until the day of swarming, and on five occasions was seen to lay in queen cups without any apparent compulsion from the workers.

• 5.

  The queen was only once or twice prevented from carrying out frequent examinations of the queen cups.

• 6.

  She was not interfered with on three occasions when the tore down unsealed queen cells, although the bees became rather excited at these times.

• 7.

  There was a reduction in the number of attendants feeding the queen after queen cell formation had begun, the bees often refusing to supply her with food, and the mean age of bees feeding the queen decreased as the swarming urge developed.

• 8.

  Two cases of “balling” of the queen are described.

• 9.

  Certain workers were seen sometimes to “shake” the queen or other workers, and this process is described. It increased in frequency as the swarming preparations developed.

• 10.

  A year-old mated queen can “pipe.” Commencing five days before the swarm left, this piping became very frequent in the final two days. Unhatched virgins piped, and after hatching they piped much more frequently. Piping ended after the final cast had departed. Descriptions of piping are given.

• 11.

  Bees in the neighbourhood of a piping virgin became quiet and still until the piping ceased.

• 12.

  A feature of the few days preceding swarming was the appearance of columns of stationary bees at the sides of the combs.

• 13.

  Intense activity, in which all the bees took part, immediately preceded the issue of the swarms.

• 14.

  Both the old queen and the virgins vigorously resisted the efforts of the workers to push them out of the hive with the swarms.