I assume that what I read about virgin queens needing afternoon temps into the mid 60's to make their mating flights is malarky, since I live in an area where the daytime temps dont hit the 60's until a month or two after swarm season starts.
Anyone in cooler climes have any experience here? It seems to me that mid 50's would be a more realistic number.
>I assume that what I read about virgin queens needing afternoon temps into the mid 60's to make their mating flights is malarky, since I live in an area where the daytime temps dont hit the 60's until a month or two after swarm season starts.
What are you using to judge or as a reference for when your swarm season starts?
>>Anyone in cooler climes have any experience here? It seems to me that mid 50's would be a more realistic number.
Our swarm season starts about mid May after the temps have moderated to where they are on average above 60 F or better during the day.
Here, a month or two before that is snow. I will tell you I have never seen a swarm in the snow, freezing rain, or even leave the hive when it was raining.
The virgin queen will taking mating flights about 2 weeks or so after the swarm has left.
Banned
60 F = 15,5 C. It is really cool and bees cannot even collect pollen properly.
To do mating flight queen needs calm sunny day and over 20 C = over 80 F temperature. Often it needs 2 good days to get sperma enough.
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Swarm season tends to start in March, but daytime highs are only low 60's in March. Often, March gets a few days over 70 but not every year.
I spoke with a local queen breeder today, who stated that they routinely observed mating flights in the low 60's (to 60) so long as it was mostly sunny all afternoon and not particularly windy.
Banned
I live at 60 latitude. Perhaps sun is shining strongly and you have warm places somewhere in sunny areas. Sounds odd.
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