Its been a month since i been in my hives. There was lots of bees coming and going in one of my bee yards with 15 hives. I knew it was time to go threw them and check for queen cells. Too make a long story short i witnessed a swarm emerge out of one hive and they were congested big time. It was a sight to see bees everywhere. I did find the queen she landed on the ground. I did a small 2 frame split with the original queen. I shook all the frames and cut all queen cells off. The last frame i didnt shake the frame i just cut all except one queen cell. Now for those of you who are firm believers in not reversing hive bodies. You who think its a waist of time need not try to convince me other wise. I went threw all the hives most had queen cells on the bottom of the frames with eggs in them, indeed preparing for a swarm. When i got to the bottom deep i had empty drawn comb in the majority of the hives. The queens didnt work their way down to the empty comb so for those of you who are believers in not reversing i beg to differ i seen it with my own eyes bottom deeps empty top of hive crowded with queen cells. Chris
Or maybe, just maybe....swarming is more than the the standard thought process of congestion and too many bees. ;)
So you would have no swarms if you reversed the boxes. The solution to stop swarming seems so simple.
But I'll never try to convince a person otherwise who already claims he will not listen to anything beyond his own reasoning. :-D
So what would reversing do that moving a few pollen frames would not have done. Neglect is not the same as not reversing.
Quote from: BjornBee on April 14, 2012, 10:27:04 PM
Or maybe, just maybe....swarming is more than the the standard thought process of congestion and too many bees. ;)
So you would have no swarms if you reversed the boxes. The solution to stop swarming seems so simple.
But I'll never try to convince a person otherwise who already claims he will not listen to anything beyond his own reasoning. :-D
"There are two ways to by fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to accept what is true"
Soren Kierkegaard
"Never argus with stupid people,they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."
Mark Twain
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
BYW, sounds like we have a tough crowd....again. Thanks for the report; an interesting observation IMO. My bees are built up as if it were July so I'm a little worried about early swarming here too. I've been pulling frames in the brood nest and installing foundation to keep the brood nest open. Plan to inspect again tomorrow. I can't reverse my jumbo frames since the brood box is in just a single box in the jumbo hives (14.5" tall frames). In contrast to your report, my bees have been brooding them up top to bottom. Interesting how your bees seemed to break at the gap between deep boxes.
I reversed my brood boxes six weeks ago on all my hives, always do in the spring and sometimes in the fall. It gives me a chance to cull out older brood comb and keep the wax in order. I haven't seen any swarm cells yet which could be from the reversing or because we are in the middle of a drought and just don't have any honey flow going on right now. Some years it seems to help, some years I just can't tell and get swarms. :?
I don't reverse, but I do place the empty bottom super on the top in the Spring since they are moving up. It helps with swarming, but you still have to go in and open up the brood nest.
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Swarming is bees' natural habit to reproduce. It has no other way.
Non swarming habit derives from selection of human beekeeping.
When you use swarm cells to continue your yard, you surely get swarms next Summer.
Even if hives swarm, like mine, reversing is very necessary job. First it mobilize the rest of winter food stores. Then it helps that combs will be used and darkened evenly .
The order of using combs is important.
I put oldest combs in the middle. When they are too dark, I move them up to supers. They will be filled with honey, exctracted and then melting.
On the sides of boxes old combs take easily mold in Winter. Even fountadion is better than old comb. Often old combs have pollen and it really takes mould.
In autumn you may put old combs downstairs. Bees rise up during Spring and then you may take away empty dark combs before they put pollen into them.
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This kind of frames needs reversing,that they will be used evenly
from corner to corner
(http://bees.limey.net/images/2002-04-27/10%20-%20Honey%20frame.jpg)
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This comb color is out of date
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZnQ4vMiLSgE/TgnZ-u9BN2I/AAAAAAAAGO8/0OzapCCK5-8/s1600/IMG_0984-1.JPG)
I like to listen too what people have to say you hear all the time about reversing and conjestion to prevent swarms. Obviously its more to it then crowding and congestion. I have hives with not so much crowding with swarm cells. Mike i know you have something to say about why this is and how to control it ill admit im far from an expert but some say reversing doesnt help i cant see how putting the bottom deep on top doesnt give the queen more room to move up. What do you all do to help prevent this. Chris