Bee Swarms

[Stlnifr]

Do all bee colonies threw after swarms and if so how soon after the original swarm?

[BjornBee]

No. Not all hives throw afterswarms.

Better than 90 of all colonies would swarm if not for beekeeper intervention.

40-50% of those that already swarmed will have a secondary swarm event 30-45 days later.

Of all the hives that do swarm, I think it's around 25% of the colonies will produce afterswarms.

The timing of afterswarms is usually within 24-48 hours. But a hive may have queens being raised over a several day period making afterswarms possible anytime multiple queen cells are still left to be used in the hive.

[Fanie]

Hi BjornBee,

Very interesting, I didn't know they made afterswarms.

I had a swarm move into a hive (it seemed like a large swarm) and a few days ago (a month after they moved in) I saw some swarming on the side of the hive.  Could this be an afterswarm forming ?

[BjornBee]

Fanie,

(welcome to the board)

Swarms can land about anywhere. So it could be a swarm.

Being in Africa, and not knowing what the type bees you have, this could also be something called usurpation of the hive. African bees are known to invade and take over less aggressive strains of bees by forming a cluster on the outside of the hive, and then at some time (Night?) over power the guards and walk in, kill the queen, and take over the hive.

We see that in areas here in the states where AHB are spreading and colonies of EHB are kept.

I have no clue your bee experience, but could this also be just bees on the outside of the hive on a hot day? Many times they will seemingly cluster on the shady side of the box keeping out of the sun, making it appear as a small cluster.

[Fanie]

Being in Africa, and not knowing what the type bees you have

African killer bees of course  :-D

Actually the bees we have here are the nice ones and keep to themselves.  I suspect they are very similar you your's, if you don't hassle them they won't attack.  If you're on their wrong side they do stand together tho.

The Cape province have a bee that would invade other bees.  If there are some invading I think one would see a type of war going and some dead bees.  None of that here.

The reason for me thinking they were afterswarming is I saw a few drones buzzing around the hive, possibly from another hive.  These were fiercely attacked by the bees, even looked like aerial tackles !

In case of an afterswarm, does it mean that more than one queen moved into a hive ?  The hive was occupied for about a month, could a new queen emerge that quickly from scratch ?  Sounds a bit soon.

I have very little bee experience but would want to learn a lot more.  So pls tell me everything you know :-D