A Swarm / Part 4

A swarm in the tree / Part 4

The swarm of bees was brought to the final location the evening before. The flight hole remained closed

At 11:24 a.m. the small flight hole was opened first. We don't do it early in the morning. So the bees notice that it is 'not a day like any other'. The tendency to 'refocus' where the new home is now is better. Immediately there was curiosity and the bees poured out to explore the new location and re-calibrate the 'internal radar'.

Then at 11:25 a.m., the large flight hole was opened:

Eine Stunde später herrschte emsiges Treiben am Bienenstock.

Der Schwarm ist relativ stark mit vielen Bienen. So haben wir sofort einen zweiten Brutraum mit Drohnenrahmen ergänzt. Ebenfalls einen Honigraum. So hat dieses Volk genügend Platz und ist entsprechend mit Bauen beschäftigt.

So the mission seems to have been a success. The next time we check the colony we will then find out whether the colony was one of ours (we find the queen and / or recognize the corresponding weakening in one of the hives ..... We will report again.

A comment reached us:

"Thank you for this very educational blog! I didn't understand how you can differentiate yours from other colonies"

Answer:

The Corona answer would be: because they are the only bees that put on a mask before flying out :-)

The chance to recognize our people would be:

a) If we find the queen at the next review and she has a green sign (because we currently only have green queens) with exactly the number (ah, that's where the number comes in again) from one of our colonies and then with the remaining colony the queen is missing (and lots of bees).
b) If the queen has another form of singning. Some beekeepers only add a splash of color. Then we know that it is not from one of our colonies.
c) If the queen has no label (because she may have lost the tile), there should still be a colony without a queen who may have already created new queen cells (so-called swarm cells).
d) would be, the queen has a sign around it's neck saying 'if someone finds me, please let beekeeper xxyy know' but that has never happened before :-)

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