In a message dated 96-03-13 18:15:04 EST, you respond to my comment:
 
>>Queens are programmed to swarm in the second year, and it's very difficult
>>to stop them.
>
> >[log in to unmask]                                   Dave Green
>
>Would you mind explaining the above statement in a little more detail?
>
>I was under the impression that queen breeders used non-swarming behavior
>as a criteria when selecting breeders.
>I have also heard that swarming is probable one of the easiest traits
>to "breed" out of bees.  Southern queen/package dealers need millions and
>millions of bee each spring to meet orders.  Therefore they breed queens
>that build up extremely fast in the spring. Although these queens
>build up rapidly, they are also carrying the swarming trait, and when
>congested, swarm.
>Ever have a hive just busting at the seams and not swarm?
>While others 1/10th the size cast off swarms all summer long?
>My opinion.
 
   It's been my experience (and my management is adapted accordingly), that
queens less than 12 months (young queens) can just be supered, with no more
disturbance to the brood nest than a quick check for foulbrood., then early
supering.  They tend to build big populations, and rarely swarm, especially
last fall's queens.  Queens over 16 months old (old queens) will almost
certainly swarm by the second week of April, if I do not reduce them to three
frames of brood by about the first of April.  Sometimes they will build back
up, and swarm anyway, but it will be later.
 
    So it seems a fuitile gesture to super old queens.  We use them to make
increase.  Often, we'll give them a second body of comb or foundation in
early March. The extra brood is used about the first week of April.  If the
old queen is saved at all, it is after close evaluation. If there is any
problem related to the queen being not up to par, or genetic related, such as
chalkbrood, meanness, or just a poor looking bee, the queen will be replaced
with a cell or a mated queen.  Once they get the habit of swarming, it is
usually repeated a couple times, and we can't afford to lose that many bees.
So, as much as we possibly can, we do not allow swarming.
 
   Most of our swarms occur, simply because we can't keep up in the spring.
 We try to keep some bees in locations where they have an early buildup, and
others where they tend to be late.  Some years they all come at once!
 
   We do requeen some batches of hives during the late summer and fall.
 These are usually really nice in the following spring, and they will rarely
swarm, unless we are grossly negligent in allowing space for them.  (I've
seen one-month-old queens from five frame nucs swarm out, because no space
was given them.  That's a pretty poor excuse for beekeeping.)  Those six or
seven month old queens can have supers slapped on them, with little more
concern, if they are supered early.  An eighteen month-old queen with an
undisturbed brood nest, even with plenty of supers will usually go anyway.
 
      Of course there is a genetic componet to swarming, as well as queen
age.  I think it is possible to breed out swarming, but do we really want to?
 There are trade-off's when we change behavior that has served the bees well
for thousands of years.  One such trade-off is poor queen rearing.
 
    I have used a number of different stocks over the years.  I very much
like Homer Park's for certain purposes, such as for making package bees.  He
has knocked out a lot of the swarm instinct.  They will build humungous
colonies that will spill over, whenever you open them, yet are very slow to
swarm. (---just the opposite of your example.)
 
   On the other hand, I once made the mistake of using his stock in my cell
builder colonies (to draw out grafted queen cells).  They did a really poor
job, and I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.  When I changed
to another, darker bee, they went right to work, and made beautiful cells.
 
   Non-swarmy stock, more often that others, will just dwindle and die, when
the queen is failing, while others will catch on to the imminant danger, and
begin supercedure, or at least emergency cells.  A non-swarmy stock is so
reluctant to raise queens, that they often will not make a queen cell until
there are nothing but drones.
 
   I see no problem, if we are aware of the trade-offs, and adjust our usage
accordingly, but I sure wouldn't want to remove swarminess from all stocks.
 
   In my own queen rearing, I no longer try to stop swarminess.
 
[log in to unmask]    Dave Green  PO Box 1200,  Hemingway, SC   29554
Pollination Home Page     http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html