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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #10498  by AdamD
 09 Apr 2021, 09:26
A swarm re-sets their position so they don't return home. Some foragers are caught up in swarms - you see a few bees on a clustered swarm with pollen in their corbiculae, for example. Although some of the older bees might fly back to the old site - are there any references on that? If they don't, there must be some chemical message that acts as a re-set or the act of the buzzing run that occurs before the swarm sets off from the hive, is part of the re-set? Although I don't recall having to do it, a swarm can be re-located a day or two after it has been hived, I understand. Has anyone tried this?
 #10499  by NigelP
 09 Apr 2021, 09:49
I'd always assumed (perhaps wrongly) that as most of the swarm is the comparatively younger "nurse" bees they have never had a "set popsition".
Bees leaving a hive will re-orientate even if you only swivel the hive 90 degrees. Its their memory of the return journey from previous foraging trips that catches them out.

I would then assume that the foragers that go with a swarm will in itially re-orientate to their new position and if they find fresh forage would return to their new nest (learn a new route hone), whereas any finding previously visited forage would return to their old hive site as the previous memory of the learnt return journey will dominate.
 #10501  by AdamD
 09 Apr 2021, 11:15
NigelP wrote:
09 Apr 2021, 09:49
I'd always assumed (perhaps wrongly) that as most of the swarm is the comparatively younger "nurse" bees they have never had a "set popsition".
Bees leaving a hive will re-orientate even if you only swivel the hive 90 degrees. Its their memory of the return journey from previous foraging trips that catches them out.

I would then assume that the foragers that go with a swarm will in itially re-orientate to their new position and if they find fresh forage would return to their new nest (learn a new route hone), whereas any finding previously visited forage would return to their old hive site as the previous memory of the learnt return journey will dominate.
Yes, we agree, swarms do consist of a large proportion of young-uns (wax producers) so they won't have set a location until they find a new home although some would have been out on cleansing flights already. You could be right that some of the foragers that leave with a swarm come back to the old nest site as they may have moved home only a km or so and will find an old flight path. However my assumption has been that some (most?) will stay at the new site as a result of the swarming process. I can't recall reading any studies on whether this happens.
 #10502  by Alfred
 09 Apr 2021, 13:59
That swarm landed on a bait hive in 'plenty of time' thread were malfunctioning.
They bounced around the site from location to location but a handful remained there for a good week.
I got fed up with them,shut them in late evening and next am took them to a 'quiet place'several miles away (obviously this side of three...) and tipped them out .
They were waiting for me when I got back :evil: so I would concour that a swarm resets on landing