Rodney,
This is in my PINK PAGES.
The number one cause of swarming is brood chamber CONGESTION, which has
nothing to do with the supers. Bees like to move UP, never down. Hence, now
you bottom
brood chamber should be totally empty of brood and honey, and the queen,
brood, and honey are in the 2nd story. REVERSING is, by far, the most
efficient way to keep
the queen laying without swarming. However, you dare not split the brood
(divide the brood into two different areas of the brood chamber), so
REVERSING has to be done at the right time (not when you get around to it).
The right time is when about
90% of the brood is all in the 2nd story and only 10% or less in the first
story.
You might have to reverse 2-5 times between now and April 15th depending on
your queen, population, weather, and other variables.
The 2nd most popular cause of swarming is the age of the queen. Beekeepers
are finally learning that a 12 months old queen is an OLD LADY and quite
likely to swarm, because she can no longer produce enough queen pheromone to
"glue" a large group of worker bees together as a single functioning unit, so
the bees swarm.
This is why I requeen EVERY September 1st, so that my "spring queen" is very
young and will not swarm. Almost all BIG commercial beekeepers requeen
annually and some requeen twice each year so they don't have swarms.
If you have old queens, I would make splits with them and then recombine them
in
July or August if you don't want any more colonies.
I hope I have helped.
George Imirie
EAS Master Beekeeper
Author of George's PINK PAGES
Starting my 70th year of beekeeping in Maryland
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