Has a marker been identified for avm ?

[Jon]

Could be that mating has already taken place - but the question is why does this clustering behaviour occur in or around the same time as queen mating if it is not simple absconding.

[mbc]

Could be that mating has already taken place - but the question is why does this clustering behavior occur in or around the same time as queen mating if it is not simple absconding.

I think it would bee a miracle if the queen wasn't mobbed on the way out and on her way back occasionally given how excited a colony can get at this time. I've observed what could have been avm, but saying that it could easily have been caused by the queen accidentally getting distracted from her purpose by over excited bees getting in the way.

I'd forgotten about Coopers book being compiled and published posthumously, good point Prakel.

[greengumbo]

I saw an interesting seminar by the team that carried out the recent tracking of Bumblebees by radar at rothemstead. They tracked individuals from cradle to grave on every foraging run. The work was recently published and made a splash on the Beeb etc. Superb stuff.

Afterwards they showed some early data from honeybees on tracking of drones. The interesting thing I noticed was that drones seemed to go around in wee gangs and flew directly near and around colonies, almost waiting for queens to emerge. There were also two sites of heavy drone activity within 100m of a few colonies. This was very early data but my interpretation was that it was showing some form of AVM.

[Jon]

The drones also move into the apideas with virgin queens presumably to get into pole position when she takes a flight. I see Apideas which were set up drone free with maybe 20-30 drones in residence a week later.

[Jon]

I'd forgotten about Coopers book being compiled and published posthumously, good point Prakel.

Indeed. He might not have agreed with some of the spin added by those who put it together.

[SDM]

The drones also move into the apideas with virgin queens presumably to get into pole position when she takes a flight. I see Apideas which were set up drone free with maybe 20-30 drones in residence a week later.

That I've definitely seen , apidea stocked from supers but there's almkst always drones about a few days later.

[prakel]

The drones also move into the apideas with virgin queens presumably to get into pole position when she takes a flight.

Could be but equally it may simply be some deep seated instinct that tells the drone that he's got a better chance of being treated well if the weather/flow collapses.