> Your second paragraph suggests that knowledge of an impending swarm is
> not much good unless you are there when it emerges.  In Britain we learn
> procedures that can be used to prevent swarms; this protects our honey crop
> and, more important, avoids bees escaping to infect our neighbours colonies
> with varroa.  Don't you bother with such things where you live?

PMFJI, but I have an answer for this.  May be it is not the same as others might
have, but it is pretty typical.

I have hives spread over a 100 mile radius in yards that are somewhat distant
from one another.  Swarming occurs from time to time and we monitor it, but
generally the levels are pretty low -- so low as to not justify having anyone
chase them.  We tried it one year and caught quite a few swarms (numerically,
but not as a percentage of the total hives).  We had a person drive around to
all yards in sequence and pick up all swarms that could be found.

As it turned out, we had an early fall, and few of the swarms built up to
produce anything or even to be worth wintering.  All-in-all, it was a waste of
time.  As for varroa and neighbours, we have about the same levels as they do.

That's not to say that in some years, and in some places the results might not
be different, but in our situation, with scarce resources and short season, we
find that it is best to do good spring work to a whole yard on a scheduled visit
(for details, see my site) -- that PREVENTS most swarms without special
monitoring and call-backs, then let nature take her course.

I suppose we might have managed the above swarms more and maybe done better with
them, but everything has an opportunity cost and we put our best efforts where
we expect we will get our best results (thanks to Peter Drucker for that
powerful idea).  All other activities are secondary.

And... if we have neglected a yard and thus suspect it may swarm, we go out when
swarming time is about to get going, and split any that have cells on the bottom
bars.

With the current price of honey, and cost of bees, we figure any sacrifice in
honey crop is repaid in having a second hive -- one that we created under our
control.

allen
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