Storey's Guide to Keeping Honey Bees by Malcolm T. Sanford

Author:Malcolm T. Sanford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: beekeeping made easy;keeping bees;making honey;beekeeping for beginners;backyard beekeeper;healthy beehives;setting up a beehive;selling honey;harvesting honey;managing hive capacity;moving a hive;bee swarms
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
Published: 2018-04-11T16:58:35+00:00

Last-Minute Swarm Prevention

Usually when the colony begins rearing queen cells, it means the swarming instinct has been triggered. Two more drastic procedures are then sometimes recommended, but they are risky and often unsuccessful:

1. Destroying queen cells so they will not develop. Bees will usually not leave behind a potentially queenless colony.

2. Removing or caging the queen, which results in fewer workers being produced and less congestion.

The following techniques involve preempting the swarming activity of colonies by reducing the population pressure in a colony:

1. Splitting the hive that is about to swarm and making up a new one. The resulting two colonies will not be in a swarming mode anytime soon, if ever, that particular season.

2. Removing frames of brood and/or house bees and adding them to weaker colonies. Capped brood is generally the better option. Honey bees will readily accept brood, whereas if adults are added to existing colonies, conflict will occur unless the bees are newly emerged and introduced slowly over time.

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