Swarming

and Swarm Control

Belfast and District Beekeepers March 2013 Alan Jones 1

Swarm in a Tree

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All living things have only two priorities A To preserve their genes B To pass on their genes to the next generation All living things develop or evolve strategies to achieve these objectives Success means the specie survives Failure means extinction

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All living creatures react to stimuli Stress is a danger to the survival of a specie Swarming is one result of stress stimuli

So stress leads to Swarming

(and Absconding)

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Triggers To Stress a) Starvation (or threatened) following end of nectar flow or bad weather b) Congestion or overcrowding c) Lack of queen substance d) Heavy varroa infestation e) Opulent or over powerful colony

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Triggers To Stress continued f) Disease or poisoning g) Queen too old – more than 3 years h) Damaged queen i) Isolation from queen NB. Some sub-species (races) and strains because of evolution or selection or breeding are very sensitive to triggers ie. swarmy bees

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Hive Yearly Population Growth

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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

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Impact of Swarming

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Swarm Prevention is the avoidance of triggers giving rise to stress Good Husbandry is the Answer Prevention is better than collecting swarms Therefore: Use a non-swarmy strain (avoid using swarms from an unknown source) Kill Queens in the Swarms you collect and Replace with your own bred Queens Use young queens – less than 3 years of age Mark and Clip your Queens

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Swarm Prevention continued Give plenty of room – in good time Replace old comb or frames of food with drawn comb or foundation in brood box so giving queen room to lay Pre-empt the bees’ need for working space So when bees are working on outer combs of brood box place a super on the hive

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Plus • • • •

Stimulative fondant feed in early February Feed in Summer if necessary Avoid too much interference Treat regularly as and when necessary to control varroa but only use effective treatments Select or buy bees from non-swarmy strains

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Be Prepared

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

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Swarm Control when Queen cells have larvae in them Queen Brood Foraging Bees All swarm controls remove one of these Move Queen on frame to nuc box Move brood to new box Move hive to one side

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a)

Actions

Destroy or “knock-down” queen cells. Every cell must be found! Bees would probably make emergency queen cells And have swarmed before you return a week later b) Split the colony – place Queen into nuc box c) Artificial Swarm – remove brood to new box NB a) Very occasionally works b) Often works c) Nearly always works For both methods in August kill the old queen and unite the colonies if no increase required

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Remember

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Swarms are natural but they should not happen so pre-empt them

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Swarms are bad publicity public panic and local authorities could ban bees

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Swarms for increase – this was the ancient skep tradition

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Increase by crude splits if no other skills or time (for queens over 3 years of age)

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Spare equipment – you need spare hive or nucleus

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Avoid using prolific bees (eg Italians) in a small hive (eg Nationals, WBCs)

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Prime Swarm = 1 st swarm to leave has nearly always the old queen Cast = subsequent swarms with a virgin queen.

Late casts unlikely to survive the Winter Unmanaged colonies may swarm themselves to death Swarms spread bad genes, varroa and disease.

Swarms are not for beginners – as there are usually old queens in swarms

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Supersedure occurs in about 10% of colonies Always lookout for a second Queen Old and new queen often present on same frame

SO NEW BEEKEEPERS Buy a Nucleus –

your confidence grows as the hive grows

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The cause of most swarms can be found at home

when

you

look into a mirror

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It is beekeepers

who allow swarms.

SO

be a BEEKEEPER NOT

a keeper of bees

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THE

ARTIFICIAL SWARM

And a Simple Method of Raising New Queens

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•

Start ( May/June)

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Step 1

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Step 2 A B A A

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Go and have a cup of tea or coffee at the same time decide whether you want to increase the number of your hives

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All the foraging bees have gone to

B

Only nurse bees left in

A

Look through box to find the Queen Place her and frame she is on in

B make sure there are no queen cells on this frame

Go through all frames in

A

and mark one with an open queen cell with a big fat well fed grub

KNOCK DOWN ALL OTHER CELLS

Close hives and leave for a week 30

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Step 3

•

B

•

A

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Step 4

•

A

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B Leave A for 3 weeks before inspecting.

Add supers to B if necessary Unite in August keeping the queen from A

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Uniting Two Colonies

Squige the queen you do not want in

B

She should be marked as she is the old one Place a newspaper over the brood box

B

Cut a few slits with your hive tool Place brood box

A

with new queen on top Set queen excluder on Add all supers from both hives 32