President Tupelo beekeepers Association Swarm Cells and Splits By Daniel R. Morthland President Tupelo beekeepers Association
What is a Swarm cell? As the hive population begins to grow and adequate space for brood rearing becomes scarce, the queen will lay fertilized eggs in specially constructed, elongated cells called queen cups. Vertically oriented Can be anywhere in hive, typically located on the edges of a frame Feed Royal jelly Capped after about 8 days Capping the cells signals the hive it is time to swarm. Queen cell video
Why do bees swarm? Multiple stimuli cause bees to want to swarm Colony congestion Dilution of queen pheromones Increased availability of Nectar and Pollen Lengthening daylight Queen age Lack of room for queen to lay eggs Over crowding is notably the number one cause for hives to swarm.
What happens before and during a swarm? Queen looses a great deal of weight as works feed her less to prepare for flight Queen laying output decreases significantly workers begin to gorge themselves on honey other activities such as foraging stop temporarily hive noise increases The Old Queen and about 50% of the bees rapidly leave the hive Queen will land and all bees will surround her while a new hive is located Swarms my rest for a few minutes or a few days parent hive left behind my have multiple cells and about 50% of the bees Sometimes virgin queens will swarm with the old queen called subsequent and or tertiary swarms Generally the firt queen born will kill all other queen before the hatch Sometimes two virgin queens will fight to the death rarely you may have two virgin queens that become matted queens in a hive
How to prevent a swarm? Questions Swarm prevention should be initiated before the first nectar flow Provide adequate space for the bees Switching brood boxes if you use two Colony equalization, move frames from out to in, move to other hives and splits Reqeening, late summer or early spring Clip the queens wings, effective if combined with other measures, bees may kill her if she can not swarm, queen may not be able to get back in the hive Remove the queen cells and cups Questions
How to due a split Split video