I have a big hive that I wanted to keep intact for honey production, so I have been eagle-eyed about swarming, opening up the brood nest a few weeks ago per MB's suggestion. They did not swarm, but they did supercede the queen. Does this make it a safe bet that they will not now swarm, or do I have to remain vigilant?
I may be wrong but I don't think that they are related other than the queen gets replaced. Supercedure happens when they know the queen if failing(it's a matter of survival). Swarming is when they are doing well enough that they can afford to loose about half their population(it's a matter of reproduction). IMO supercedure may delay swarming but if they have the resources and are out of room they still will swarm.
If a supercedure took place the odds are it will not swarm because of the time it takes to replace the queen and the fact that it is a new queen. But as Cao said you can make it happen.
Some bee keepers in OZ will use requeening as swarm control as they believe a young queen wont swarm early in her time in the hive.
Bees will swarm any time but our worst time is peak spring October, November, that is why we do splits in mid- late September. We do split heavily, sometimes taking 3 frames of brood from a single 8fr hive with a Qx.
Once bees decide to swarm, they will swarm -- unless you do something to make them think that they have swarmed.
Quote from: Dallasbeek on May 29, 2017, 07:43:55 PM
Once bees decide to swarm, they will swarm -- unless you do something to make them think that they have swarmed.
Thanks, everyone. I was trying to use MB's advice to keep them from wanting to swarm in the first place, as I agree that once they've decided, it's going to happen unless you split the hive in a way that makes them think that the swarm has happened.