Swarm PreventionWhy

When How

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Why Control Swarming

Keep backyard beekeeping socially acceptable

Honey for the bees and the beekeeper

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Types of Swarms

Absconding Swarms The whole colony departs

• Lack of resources, unacceptable accommodations, parasites…

Reproductive Swarms Natures way of prospering Not enough room

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Conditions that Promote Swarming

Decrease queen pheromone Last years queen

Congestion Lack of open cells in the brood nest for the

queen to lay eggs Crowding – bees, nectar, and pollen

Environmental conditions Resources -Abundance of nectar and pollen Weather - Sunny, warm, calm

Genetic strain

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Timing Swarm Season Drone brood rearing begins 4-6 weeks prior to

swarming

4 weeks after dandelion bloom starts (This year dandelion bloom started mid January)

Apple blossom peak

The warm calm day after the bees have been cooped up due to inclement weather

Swarming usually coincides with relatively good foraging periods and tends to occur from March to June, with a peak in early April

Last frost in Concord 1999-2014 was end of February

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Swarming is Eminent If you see capped queen cells the colony has most

likely swarmed. If there are queen cells and no eggs the colony has

likely swarmed.

Cutting out queen cells If you destroy all the queen cells you may end up

with no queen. Does not prevent swarming Is labor intensive Your colony may need one of those queens DOES prevent secondary swarms

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Successful Swarm Preventionstarts before you see queen cells

Provide room for the queen to lay within the brood nest

Provide room for pollen and nectar

Provide the equivalent of 2 deeps for brood

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Swarm Prevention Methods (queen staying with brood)

Caging the queen - breaks the brood cycle Add drawn comb in the brood area (Checker

Boarding) Reversing brood boxes

Do keep brood together with room to move up

Don’t if it splits the brood Move frames of brood and nurse bees to a

weaker colony replace with empty drawn comb

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Checker Boarding

Labor intensive and need extra frames of empty drawn comb. Start 2 months prior and repeat until end of to swarm seasonUseful technique for Top Bar Hives

J. Zawislak graphic S.J. Repasky

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Reversing Brood Boxes

YES

NO

J. Zawislak graphic S.J. Repasky

12After using the preceding techniques to build a strong

colony, Preempt the Swarm

Separate the brood from the queen. A "true" swarm has an old queen,

20,000 or so workforce of bees of all ages, and no comb.

An artificial swarm is typically the foragers, the old queen, and empty comb.

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Swarm Prevention Methods (separate queen from brood)

Splits or nucs (see resources)

Demaree - preceded Snelgrove Set up is same as Snelgrove without SB Queen cells are removed, Every 7 days brood frames are moved up to top box and

additional Queen cells are removed (see resources)

Double Screen aka Snelgrove Board (SB) Provides the queen with extra laying space Maintains all the bees at full strength in the hive, Ultimately reunite as one colony with a new queen Do not have to manipulate the hive after Day 1

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Double Screen Board aka Snelgrove Board

Better Bee Inc.10 Frame Double Screen DSC1Starting at $17.45

Swarming: Its Control and Prevention$29.95 by L E Snelgrove

The bees’ scent and heat pass through the entire hive via a patch of mesh in the center of the Snelgrove board, however the queen pheromones do not.

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Snelgrove Board

3 (4) pairs of entrances

Each pair has an entrance above and below the board

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----------------------------------------------------------------

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All larva are fed royal jelly the first 3 days

------------------------------------ Laying

Queen

Honey Bee Brood Development

-------------------------------------virgin Q’s mating flight(s) after 4 days old

Q larva are fed royal jelly all 8 days

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Metamorphosis of the Queen Bee

Egg hatches on Day 3

Larva (several moltings) Day 3 to Day 8 1⁄2

Queen cell capped ~ Day 7 1⁄2

Pupa ~ Day 8 until emergence

Emergence ~Day 15 1⁄2 - Day 17

Nuptial Flight(s) ~Day 20 - 24

Egg Laying ~Day 23 and up

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_bee

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Snelgrove Method Benefits

Queen continues to lay freely Colony size is maintained Foraging force is maintained New queen is created Minimal beekeeper labor

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Snelgrove - Method I

Day 1 – Rearrange the hive (a vertical split) Box A

Combs containing Brood with adhering bees, (youngest brood in the center capped brood to the sides) with sufficient pollen and honey

Box B Broodless mostly empty combs with

adhering bees One comb with a little unsealed brood The Queen

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Snelgrove - Method IDay 1 - continued Build the hive in the following order

Bottom board, Box(s) B, Excluder, Super(s), Box(s) A

Day 4 (It just works better to wait a few days to add the SB, it is not about the nurse bees)

Place Snelgrove Board (SB) under Box A, the edge without entrances towards the front of the hive

Open only one top entrance(left side)

Day 7-8 Close top left entrance and open bottom left entrance Open top right entrance (opposite side of hive) Look for queen cells in Box A remove all but the best ones for

requeening this colony or developing a second colony

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Snelgrove - Method IDay 14-15 Close top entrance on right side Open bottom entrance on right side Open top entrance on back

If there are queen cells you can allow a new queen to emerge and mate (leave the top back entrance open until you know you have a lying queen) Then either start a nuc or requeen the hive.

Method II is used if Q cells are present

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Snelgrove - Method I

An artificial swarm was created with the old queen and all the field bees in Box B.

The queen has been able to continue laying, field bees have been repeatedly diverted from Box A to Box B

There has been no break in the brood cycle Colony size has been maintained A new queen is available to re-queen the colony or

use elsewhere

The timings of the entrance manipulations are only critical when using the technique to raise one or more new queens.

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Separating the brood from the queen leads to the production of multiple emergency queen cells.

If the bees are naturally due to swarm, then the queens raised will generally be good ones.

If the procedure is performed too early in the season, the emergency cells are more likely to result in poor queens.

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Now What?

Reunite the colony and re-queen or use the new queen elsewhere Use the paper method if a new queen was

produced Raise a new colony from the top box

Once the queen is mated and laying, the top box can be relocated to form a new, separate colony.

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Basic Swarm Prevention Split

On the original hive location 1 frame - the old queen with brood, honey, and

pollen (no queen cells) Drawn comb or foundation

Move the parent hive to a new location Brood, honey and pollen Wait 1-3 days then introduce fertile queen If they have to make their own queen you will

loose 2-3 weeks of brood production

May need to rebalance the number of foragers or brood in the hives

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Taranov

4 inches

honeybeesuite.com

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Swarm Bandit

Orr Bee Supply or Brushy Mountain Bee Supply

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Resources Splits - http://

www.bushfarms.com/beespresentations.htm

Demaree –

http://countryrubes.com/images/Swarm_Prevention_By_Demaree_Method.pdf

Double Screen Board - http://www.wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/The-M

any-Uses-Of-A-Snelgrove-Board-by-Wally-Shaw.pdf

Swarming: It’s Control and Prevention by L. E. Snelgrove

Swarm Essentials: Ecology, Management, Sustainability by Stephen J. Repasky

Taranov- http://www.honeybeesuite.com/the-great-divide-a-taranov-split/