How do we record feral European Honey Bee swarms? I have found several in bushland. I am thinking to highlight about the threat to flora and fauna. I am from Victoria Australia.
I don’t know if there is an associated project, but there is an observation field for swarming behavior
Here’s the set of Australian Western Honey Bee observations with the decriptor “swarm”: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=6744&q=swarm&subview=map&taxon_id=47219
As honeybee is not native in Australia, it should be probably noted “automatically” in the observation that this is a taxon outside its native range? I’ve seen several observations with such adnotations.
Not on iNat but this group do track and may be able to collect swarms: swarmpatrol.com/swarm_reports/add
Some of those observations described as “swarm” just show that people don’t know what a bee swarm is.
@Vireya Can you provide some more information to help us learn (proper definition, example(s), etc.)? Thanks.
Technically, a swarm is the bees accompanying a queen searching for a nesting spot.
Sorry, I didn’t see this until now.
Some of those observations show a single bee at a flower, or several bees drinking water. Single bees are foraging from an established hive, and a number of bees drinking water will also be from an established hive. They are not swarming.
A swarm is when a queen and possibly thousands of other bees leave a hive to create a new colony. They settle together somewhere, while scouts fly out looking for a site for the new colony to create a new home. Most commonly you observe a large “ball” of bees hanging in a tree, or sometimes you see them flying to their chosen new location - the air will be thick with bees.
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