Identifying conditions & Prevention Techniques Honey bee Swarming Identifying conditions & Prevention Techniques

Reasons for Swarming Spring: Fall (false swarm/absconding) Mechanism for colony procreation and continuing species Restrictive ventilation Overcrowding Honey bound Poor health of queen Fall (false swarm/absconding) Disease Robbing Pest infestation

Why do we want to prevent swarming? To be good neighbors (The last thing we want is for that one neighbor who doesn't know we have bees to have our swarm land in their tree) Reduction is hive strength No brood for a minimum of two weeks Slow rebuild of colony numbers Reduction in working numbers for honey store buildup Can be the trigger point for complete collapse.

What triggers swarming preparations? Some colonies will prepare as soon as the spring nectar flow starts Adequate bee population in the hive Abundant food store Low queen pheromone production Some colonies are naturally very “swarmy” (don’t keep them around)

When to start swarm prevention: Rule of thumb… First warm day over 55 degrees Around February 1st First sign of mustard plant blossoms in our area During drought/warm winter years, its almost never to early In wet/warm years the rain may keep the bees in more often which can create overcrowding sooner

What to look for during inspection: Queen cells at bottom of the frames Large number of capped brood cells Workers backfilling cells with nectar Inspect queen for weight loss, restlessness and has stopped laying

What else to look for… The obvious! Crowded hive Honeybound

Swarm Control Methods Give them ROOM!!! Add suppers February 1st!!!! Box Flip Slatted Rack Add super on bottom (crystallized honey) and top super Install swarm screen (entrance grill) Cut queen excluder

Remove queen cells – repeat every 7 days Re-Queen (kill & replace with breeder queen) – (queen cell) Remove queen cells, re-inspect to see if queen has been released in 5 days repeat in 7 days – remove any new queen cells Can use grafted queen cell Tear off leg! (supersedure queen – remove all but one queen cell) Isolate queen with push on cage (remove queen cells and/or cage in cells to use new queens in splits)

Demaree (isolate queen from brood) Split! Cincinnati Split (aka walkaway) Multi-Nuc Checker boarding Demaree (isolate queen from brood) Ventilation!! Open brood nest & extract ASAP (drawn comb is beekeepers gold) Diagram of the Demaree method (shaded boxes and frames indicate congested boxes and frames covered with bees: white boxes and frames indicate empty boxes and empty frames or foundation.

Prepare - Just In case they do swarm! Mark your queens!!!! Helps with finding your queen Helps identify if your colony has replaced their queen Clipping queen’s wing (not a swarm prevention method but a great way to catch your swarm!)

Swarmy Swarms are going to Swarm! All colonies will swarm! Some are just genetically more prone than others Excessive-swarming colonies are prolific swarmers Most excessive swarming colonies come from swarm calls in the community. Once you have identified that this colony is an excessive swarmer, replace the queen ASAP! This presentation included the very basic information on swarm prevention. Go out and find mentors, read up and experiment on ways to prevent swarming.

Bee Diligent and Have Fun!