Swarming

[Gware]

Will a hive swarm so much that it will weaken it. I have a hive that swarmed twice and they were pretty big swarms.

[Beaches Bee-Haven Apiary]

Will a hive swarm so much that it will weaken it. I have a hive that swarmed twice and they were pretty big swarms.

Yes, a hive will weaken itself when swarming! We lost our first hive to SHB, which took over after excessive swarming.

-Nathanael 8-)

[indypartridge]

Yes.  Even one swarm is can be roughly half the bee population. Besides being weakened, multiple swarms may leave a hive queenless or with a sub-par queen.

[HAB]

Russians (ours) can swarm 3 or more times a month in the spring, if you don't control the swarm cells.  To the point the Bees left might not survive.

[Wes Sapp]

I have a feral hive I caught less than 2 months ago and they swarmed again yesterday, about 35' up a pine tree. I looked in the hive to see what was left and it seemed like there were only a hand full of bees and an equal amount of shb's. I'll have to keep an extra close eye on them now, may even need to put a trap in.