# Ages and Roles of bees in a swarm? Also, age of the queen...



## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

Bees of all ages go with the prime swarm, and about 50-60% of the adults leave with the swarm. The bees do the jobs needed, and if the correct age group is missing, another age group will advance or revert to do the task. The colony queen that is the mother of the workers leaves in the prime swarm, afterswarms have virgins in them. It is possible for the prime swarm to have virgins in it, along with the mother queen. Weather can force the workers to keep the virgins confined in their cells until good weather allows a swarm to depart.

I would not pinch a queen until her brood has emerged and become forager age, then you can more accurately gage the colony temper.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Here is a link to a very good bit of information From Randy Oliver on swarming and all the factors that go into the decisions. Figure 2 shows the average age of bees at prime swarm time.

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/understanding-colony-buildup-and-decline-part-7b/


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I'd say the majority of the swarm are young fuzzy bees, but there are also older foragers as well. They are not all the same age.


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## a_bee_in_az (Apr 11, 2016)

It's unbelievable how calculated and "smart" a colony of bees is. I'm very surprised to find that all the ages can and will fly in a swarm and that they can fill in all the roles wherever they land next. 

Makes a lotta sense, the next mystery is how do _they_ know 

I'll give this queen a chance and see what emerges in the coming weeks. Could be nice bees, could be the spawn of satan.


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## crmauch (Mar 3, 2016)

Aren't you in in an area where there are AHB? If so, might you want to go ahead and requeen now?


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