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Swarming

and Swarm Control

Belfast and District Beekeepers

March 2013

Alan Jones

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Swarm in a Tree

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All living things have only two priorities

A To preserve their genes

B To pass on their genes to the next generation

All living things develop or evolve strategies

to achieve these objectives

Success means the specie survives

Failure means extinction

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All living creatures react to stimuli

Stress is a danger to the survival of a specie

Swarming is one result of stress stimuli

So stress leads to Swarming (and Absconding)

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Triggers To Stress

a) Starvation (or threatened)

following end of nectar flow or bad weather

b) Congestion or overcrowding

c) Lack of queen substance

d) Heavy varroa infestation

e) Opulent or over powerful colony

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Triggers To Stress continuedf) Disease or poisoning

g) Queen too old – more than 3 years

h) Damaged queen

i) Isolation from queen

NB. Some sub-species (races) and strains

because of evolution or selection or breeding

are very sensitive to triggers

ie. swarmy bees

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Hive Yearly Population Growth

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When Bees Swarm

• Humans marry and have children• Children leave the home to get married• Bees are different• The old mother leaves with some daughters• This is called a SWARM• They set out to build a new colony• The old nest is left intact for the new Queen

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Impact of Swarming

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Swarm Prevention

is the avoidance of triggers giving rise to stressGood Husbandry is the Answer

Prevention is better than collecting swarms

Therefore:Use a non-swarmy strain

(avoid using swarms from an unknown source)Kill Queens in the Swarms you collect

and Replace with your own bred Queens

Use young queens – less than 3 years of age

Mark and Clip your Queens

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Swarm Prevention continued

Give plenty of room – in good time

Replace old comb or frames of food

with drawn comb or foundation in brood box so giving queen room to lay

Pre-empt the bees’ need for working space

So when bees are working on outer combs of brood box place a super on the hive

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Plus

• Stimulative fondant feed in early February

• Feed in Summer if necessary

• Avoid too much interference

• Treat regularly as and when necessary to control varroa

but only use effective treatments

Select or buy bees from non-swarmy strains

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Have spare equipment availablewhich is clean and serviceable

Check your hives every 7 to 9 days

Only every 9 days if the Queen is Clipped

Act as soon as queen cells are seen with eggs as otherwise the honey crop will be lost.

Be Prepared

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Swarm Controlwhen Queen cells have larvae in them

Queen Brood Foraging Bees

All swarm controls remove one of these

Move Queen on frame to nuc box

Move brood to new box

Move hive to one side

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a) Destroy or “knock-down” queen cells. Every cell must be found! Bees would probably make emergency queen cells And have swarmed before you return a week later

b) Split the colony – place Queen into nuc box

c) Artificial Swarm – remove brood to new box

NB a) Very occasionally works b) Often works c) Nearly always works

For both methods in August kill the old queen and unite the colonies if no increase required

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Actions

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Remember•Swarms are natural but they should not happen so pre-empt them•Swarms are bad publicity - public panic and local authorities could ban bees•Swarms for increase – this was the ancient skep tradition•Increase by crude splits if no other skills or time (for queens over 3 years of age)•Spare equipment – you need spare hive or nucleus•Avoid using prolific bees (eg Italians) in a small hive (eg Nationals, WBCs)

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Prime Swarm = 1st swarm to leave

has nearly always the old queen

Cast = subsequent swarms with a virgin queen.

Late casts unlikely to survive the Winter

Unmanaged colonies may swarm themselves to death

Swarms spread bad genes, varroa and disease.

Swarms are not for beginners –

as there are usually old queens in swarms

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Supersedure occurs in about 10% of colonies

Always lookout for a second Queen

Old and new queen often present on same frame

SO NEW BEEKEEPERSBuy a Nucleus –

your confidence grows as the hive grows

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The cause of most swarms

can be found at home

when you look into a mirror

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It is beekeepers

who allow swarms.

SO

be a BEEKEEPER

NOT a keeper of bees

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THE

ARTIFICIAL SWARM

And a

Simple Method of

Raising New Queens

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•Start ( May/June) A

•Step 1A

•Step 2B A

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Go and have a cup of tea or coffee

at the same time

decide whether you want toincrease the number of your hives

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All the foraging bees have gone to BOnly nurse bees left in A

Look through box to find the Queen

Place her and frame she is on in Bmake sure there are no queen cells on this frame

Go through all frames in A and mark one with

an open queen cell with a big fat well fed grub

KNOCK DOWN ALL OTHER CELLS

Close hives and leave for a week

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•Step 3•B •A

•Step 4 •A •B

Leave A for 3 weeks before inspecting.

Add supers to B if necessary Unite in August keeping the queen from A

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Uniting Two Colonies

Squige the queen you do not want in BShe should be marked as she is the old one

Place a newspaper over the brood box BCut a few slits with your hive tool

Place brood box A with new queen on top

Set queen excluder on

Add all supers from both hives