Apiary Vicinity mating again

[Adam]

The only mating swarm I believe I saw was from a full-sized hive - they flew and then came back the queen was laying shortly afterwards. Can't remember the type of queen - my current ones tend to be quite orangy in colour - although there's quite a variability.

Mini-nucs do abscond AFTER the queen has started to lay - often just a few days and before you get around to putting a queen excluder over the entrance. It does seem to be a heat thing and the mini-nucs don't have to be in full sun either - just a decent warm day. I've never seen it from 3 or 5 frame nucs using std BS frames but have seen it from some small plywood mini-nucs I have.

[Jon]

Hi Adam. yes, I am well familiar with absconding from Apideas and it happens sometimes just a couple of days after she starts to lay. Mostly it is caused by over population or over heating but sometimes it just happens! If you set things up right it does not appear to happen in more than one in 20 or 30 apideas. On a really hot day the bets are off!

What I am describing always happens before the queen has started to lay and usually precedes laying by 2 or 3 days.