swarm prevention questions.

brendan · June 08, 2010, 01:07:04 AM

I just inspected one of my hives tonight. I found limited brood in the top box and alot of swarm cells. These are both on the face but mostly on the bottom bars and sealed. I think they have been backfilling the brood nest with nectar. I am starting to get some honey in the supers above and dont want ot blow it with a swarm. I have read about demaree and snellgrove techniques but am not sure how they apply to prevention at this point. How can I still get a honey crop at this point. Any management suggestions apreciated. What I have been doing up to this point is starting splits with swarm cell frames. I have been at this 2-3 seasons. I think I have created a race of bees that likes to swarm.

MacfromNS · June 08, 2010, 07:40:42 AM

Make a spit using the queen so they think they swarmed. That's better then having them swarm and loosing it.

Michael Bush · June 08, 2010, 07:59:33 AM

It's too late to prevent a swarm now. I'd do the split as MacfromNS said . All races of bees like to swarm. It's how they reproduce the superorganisms. If we breed bees that don't swarm bees will be doomed.

FRAMEshift · June 08, 2010, 09:41:51 AM

Quote from: Michael Bush on June 08, 2010, 07:59:33 AM
It's too late to prevent a swarm now. I'd do the split as MacfromNS said . All races of bees like to swarm. It's how they reproduce the superorganisms. If we breed bees that don't swarm bees will be doomed.

You have mentioned the "simulated swarm" if I remember correctly. Is it just too late in this case? When can you stop a swarm by splitting? Does it matter whether the queen changes hives in the split or is removing half the bees and honey stores enough to stop a swarm? What makes it too late in this case?

iddee · June 08, 2010, 10:50:43 AM

You must remove the queen. They cannot swarm without a queen. Leave her and they are going to swarm.

FRAMEshift · June 08, 2010, 12:41:56 PM

Quote from: iddee on June 08, 2010, 10:50:43 AM
You must remove the queen. They cannot swarm without a queen. Leave her and they are going to swarm.

And if you remove her to a different hive, along with half the bees,brood and honey frames, the new hive will act as though it has already swarmed? But if you move half the hive but leave the queen where she was, there will still be a swarm?

brendan · June 08, 2010, 12:48:30 PM

OK, so I do a split. This presents me with a couple of problems. Hive is still pretty populous, I am not good at finding the queen. Should I just split the hive and move both hives from the original location?
What I am really interested in is a honey crop. Could I take the two boxes, put them side by side on a large bottom board and run a two queen hive as discribed by micheal bush.