Subject: One hive swarming three times in a week...Help

From: [email-masked] (Susan Russell)
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 18:29:54 GMT

I am new at beekeeping. I have a year old hive of Italian honey bees.
The hive has swarmed three times in the last week. I managed to
capture the second issue.   Could someone please enlighten me as to
the frequency of this kind of event happening again? I thought that I
took adequate swarm measures. Destroying queen cells, adding supers,
reversing brood nest in early spring. What else should I have done??

---

From: Graham & Annie Law <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 15:31:47 +0100

In article <31d18040.89902458@sparky>, Susan Russell
<[email-masked]> writes
>reversing brood nest in early spring. What else should I have done??

Mmmmm, The old 'how to stop em swarming' query again. There are complete
books dedicated to this one but here are a few pointers that may help.

AA.
        Stating the obvious..Bees need to swarm to multiply, once there
are queen cells with eggs laid there is litle point cutting them out as
you are unlikely to change thier mind. The trick is to prevent them
getting that far.

BB.
        Bees swarm for several reasons
        1a.     Short of brood space.
        1b.     Short of honey storage space.
        2.      Crowded hive.
        3a.     Too hot.
        3b.     Poor ventilation.
        4.      Poor bee characteristics (swarmers)
        5.      To annoy the beekeeper.
        
Personally I reckon cause '5' is the most believable.

CC.
        The first swarm (prime swarm) left with your original mated
queen, if you looked into the hive after that occurance you would see
multiple Queen cells some capped others not.  Select two or three of the
best examples and re arrange the brood chamber to leave these cells
close to each other.  When the first virgin Queen emerges she should
kill the other potential queens by stinging through the side of their
cells. (not fully guaranteed as they litle sods don't read bee books) A
few days later she will mate and then you will be OK til next year.             

DD.
        Without doing the above, newly emerged virgin queens can lead
more swarms (called Casts) from the hive until the hive is severly
weakened.  This is what has happened to yourself.  I presume by the time
you read this it will be a bit late, however, have a look inside and
carry out the above if there are still sealed Q cells.

EE.
        Anyway , don't despair we all loose swarms just think about the
causes early in the season.  Give them plenty of space and don't breed
>from  bees that swarm for no good reason.  Your present hive should
survive but don't expect much honey this year.

Cheers Graham

Further reading..
        'SWARMING'      L.E.Snelgrove   ISBN    0905 652 290

Graham Law
[email-masked]

Winning the rat race still makes you a rat.