Hi All
 
I was recently studying the concept of the Taranov Board to control swarms.
 
 
The hive concerned must be on the point of swarming, i.e there should be
advanced queen cells. You do not have to find the queen, which in my opinion
is a major advantage of the system.
 
From my understanding, it works as follows:
 
Place the Taranov board in such a way as to form an inclined plane between
the hive entrance and the ground. The upper end of the inclined plane should
be about 10cm from the hive entrance or landing board. A white sheet can be
placed with advantage at the ground end of the board.
 
Shake all of the bees on all frames which do not have queen cells on to the
board/sheet. The queen will be shaken off also. Where there are queen cells
on a frame, this frame should be brushed on to the Taranov board to avoid
damage to the queen cell contents. All of the frames are now returned to the
hive.
 
The bees now walk up the Taranov board. When they reach the top of the
board, those bees which can fly will fly into the hive. The bees which
cannot fly, (the nurse bees), will walk around the edge of the board and
cluster with the queen on the underside.
 
We now have a cluster of bees which we can hive that evening. Since they are
a swarm, they have lost all knowledge of their previous hive, so that they
can be hived within the apiary.
 
What puzzles me about this is, that in my opinion, this 'swarm' is not the
same as the real swarm which would in all probability have emerged a few
days later if the Taranov board had not been used. In the case of a real
swarm, the bees would have consisted mostly of flying bees, whereas the
'swarm' induced by the Taranov system consists mostly if not all of nurse
(non flying) bees.
 
How then can the Taranov system claim, that it is duplicating to the
beekeepers timetable, what would have happened naturally?.
 
Since I am a new beekeeper I am most likely missing something. If anybody
can help to answer this conundrum for me, I would be most grateful.
 
Sincerely
Tom Barrett
49 South Park
Foxrock
Dublin 18
Ireland
 
e mail [log in to unmask]
Tel + 353 1 289 5269
Fax + 353 1 289 9940
 
Latitude  53 Deg North
Longitude 06 Deg West