From: RSBrenchley@aol.com
Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2001 04:27:31 EDT
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Queen flights

Dee writes:

> Actually, it has been written that they can and have taken flights later
> on.
>
> Also, it is natural for the old queen to leave when a new queen comes on
> board, with natural swarming impulse to start another colony. Then after
> established, she normallly lays for a short while and then is superceded
> rather then be allowed to swarm again with more bees..

I should of course have said 'except for swarming'. I've occasionally
come across anecdotal evidence of queens taking off flights, possibly
cleansing flights. This worries me, as I want long-lived bees, because
prolific broodrearers don't tend to do so well in our climate. The way to
test for this is to see how long the queens live, so I don't want to lose
them prematurely, and think they've superseded when the original queen has
been lost due to my own messing about.

Regards,

Robert Brenchley

RSBrenchley@aol.com