Minimizing Swarms

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Minimizing Swarms

Swarm control is important for honey production because colonies that swarm rarely recover in time to produce a significant honey crop. Controlling and minimizing swarms is necessary in order to enjoy a successful crop of honey.

Colonies that swarm rarely recover in time to produce a significant honey crop.
Follow these initial steps to prevent swarming:
  • Reverse hive bodies in early spring to create more space for brood and nectar.
  • Be sure colonies have plenty of room to accommodate the expanding brood nest and to store incoming nectar in the spring (oversuper in spring).
  • Check the colony mid-April to mid-June for queen cells.
  • Destroy all swarm cells, but make sure that none of them are emergency or supersedure queen cells.
  • Take further measures, such as splitting the colony, as discussed previously.
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Minimizing Swarms (Runtime 1:06)

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Swarm Cells vs. Emergency Cells

Queen cells found hanging vertically from the lower edge of the comb during swarming season are called "swarm cells," and they are meant to produce queens in addition to the old one.

On the other hand, when a queen is absent due to natural causes, an accident, diseases, or predators, bees create "emergency cells" by turning worker cells into queen cells. Emergency cells are few and are found on the face of the comb. Emergency queen cells may also be built in response to a failing queen as the colony is preparing for supersedure. A failing queen will usually attempt to initiate a swarm before the emergency queen pupae reach maturity.

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Swarm cells hanging from the bottom of brood frames.

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Equalizing

One way to prevent swarms as well as make weaker colonies more productive is to "equalize" the strength of colonies, i.e., strengthen the weaker ones and reduce the strength of the stronger ones.

One of the easiest ways to equalize is to interchange the locations of the strong and weak colonies within the same yard. Foraging bees from the strong hive will return to their old location but instead enter the weak colony, strengthening it. Simultaneously, the strong colony will have a decreased population, and idle bees that might have prepared to swarm will forage instead.

One of the easiest ways to equalize colonies and prevent swarming is to interchange the locations of the strong and weak colonies within the same yard.

There are several other ways to equalize weak colonies:

  • Add sealed (capped) brood from strong, healthy colonies.
  • Add queenless booster packages.
  • Combine two weak colonies, separated using the newspaper method (see "Uniting Weak Colonies" below).
  • Combine two colonies, only one of which has a queen.
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Uniting Weak Colonies

What do you do with the "spare" queen when you unite two weak colonies?

If you have enough bees from another colony, you can create a "nuc" with it (see Spring Splits) and introduce the queen. This will tell you if the quality of the queen was a factor in the weakness of the old colony.

Note:

  • The newspaper method helps the odors of the combined colonies mingle over time, successfully uniting them.
  • If combining in fall, be sure to leave the colonies with sufficient honey for the new colony size.

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