Thread: Native bee hive budding

Don't know anything about native bees except I have plenty of them working the garden. However, with regular honey bees the average life during summer is about 6 weeks, a queen can go for several years. Also, there is no such thing with honey bees as a princess. When a new queen emerges she will immediatel go around adn kill the remaining queen cells - only one queen to a hive. The vergin queen will mate with a drone (male) from a different hive - this keeps the strenght of the hive; no inbreeding. Don't know if it applies to native bees, but as soon as that hive becomes full, the hive will swarm. That is, half the hive will leave with the old queen. A new queen will have been "made" before she goes. You will spend hours just watching them - they are facinating!