A new review paper argues that the departing honeybee swarm is the parent colony leaving with its queen, while afterswarms may allow the colony to produce multiple offspring — a reinterpretation of centuries of beekeeping assumptions.
A new review paper argues that the departing honeybee swarm is the parent colony leaving with its queen, while afterswarms may allow the colony to produce multiple offspring — a reinterpretation of centuries of beekeeping assumptions.
So the swarm is the parent colony leaving. Fine. Then who’s left in the empty hive—the teenagers? And why do I still see keepers treating a swarm as a loss to chase? What else have we “known” for centuries that’s just folklore with a smoker? I want the inconvenient part answered.