1 Urban Swarming and Swarm Control Paul Longwell Olympia Beekeepers May 2015

Why Control Swarming? 2 Keep backyard beekeeping socially acceptable Honey for the bees and the beekeeper

3 In my opinion, bait hives should be a part of a modern up-to-date apiary during swarm season. In particular, suburban and urban beekeepers should use bait hives near their apiaries to help keep their swarms from causing problems.

4 When Bees Swarm Humans marry and have children Children leave the home to get married Bees are different The old mother leaves with some daughters This is called a SWARM They set out to build a new colony The old nest is left intact for the new Queen

Interesting Swarm Facts Most found swarms are within 170 feet of the original hive 80% of swarms perish Typically a swarm occurs between 10 am and 2 pm In many countries allowing hives to swarm is considered poor beekeeping etiquette. In the United States catching swarms can be treated by some like a free sample day at Costco. Swarms in urban areas are more likely to be within one or two generations of the commercial bee strains and not feral bees. 5

Known Hives around Me 6

Types of Swarms Absconding Swarms – The whole colony departs Lack of resources, unacceptable accommodations, parasites… Reproductive Swarms – Natures way of prospering – Not enough room 7

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 8

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 9

10 Hive Yearly Population Growth

11 Impact of Swarming

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 12

Swarm Queen Cells

Successful Swarm Prevention starts 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 14

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 15

Checker Boarding 16 Labor intensive and need extra frames of empty drawn comb. Start 2 months prior and repeat until end of the swarm season Useful technique for Top Bar Hive

Reversing Brood Boxes 17 YES NO

After 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. 18

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 19

Double Screen Board aka Snelgrove Board 20 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.

Snelgrove Board 21 3 (4) pairs of entrances Each pair has an entrance above and below the board

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 22

Taranov 23 4 inches honeybeesuite.com

Taranov Board Bearing the name of it's Russian inventor, this device allows a shook swarm to be made, with the queen, which can then be hived in the same apiary. Bees will not return to the original site, but will behave like a natural swarm. It consists of a sloping board, about 16” wide, which is arranged to slope up from the ground, to a point approximately level with the hive entrance and about 4” away from it. A sheet is laid on the board, to increase the area, a little back from the top edge and the bees are shaken from the frames onto the board. The bees should be brushed from any frame with a queen cell you wish to keep. Most of the older bees, cross the gap back into the hive. Mostly younger bees, with the queen, form a cluster below the top edge of the board. It helps if a piece of Hessian, or burlap, is fixed to this part to give the bees some grip. When the cluster is well formed, which takes minutes, The board can be carried away and the swarm hived elsewhere in the apiary. A drawback to this operation, is that the hive needs to be on a stand of some sort. If your hive is low to the ground, it will need blocking up 10“ or more. 24

Swarm Bandit 25

26 Have spare equipment available which is clean and serviceable Check your hives every 7 to 9 days Act as soon as queen cells are seen with eggs as otherwise the honey crop will be lost. Be Prepared

27 Remember Swarms are natural but they should not happen so pre-empt them Swarms are bad publicity - public panic and local authorities could ban bees Swarms for increase – this was the ancient skep tradition Increase by crude splits if no other skills or time (for queens over 3 years of age) Spare equipment – you need spare hive’s or nuc’s Avoid using prolific bees (eg Italians) in a small size hive (top-Bar Golden Mean style)

Bees do what Bees do 28

29 Swarm in a Tree

Swarm Trap

Swarm being hived 31

Here’s what’s in my swarm kit Copy paper box Duck tape White sheet #8 hardware cloth Queen catcher Sling Shot 30 lb fishing line with 3oz weight Expandable pole with bucket Pruners Lemon grass or Swarm Commander Bait hive with old brood comb Collapsible ladder Bee suit 32

Use of Sling Shot for swarm removal 33

Contact Gayle if you are a Swarm gatherer! Swarm Hot Line

References Walt Wright Michael Bush Honeybee suite Beesource David Cushman Beeworks Pnwhoneybeesurvey 35