Great discussion all! 

I and I am sure most of us know the usual manipulations used to control swarming. I practice the ones that do not interfere with an early spring flow. That means not splitting most of them, keeping over-wintered queens usually until past swarming prime time (mid June). I do reverse once usually mid April, super early, keep them a little hungry in very early spring (no stimulative feeding) to retard explosive build-up until there are natural resources to exploit, give each a couple of frames of foundation hoping to keep the girls occupied on bad weather days and get them to their locations on time. All of that works most of the time. I envy Pete's success. I see annual variation in percentages of swarming. This past year was a good one. For me 12%. A bad year can be 30%. What seems to make a difference is how early a strong flow begins. If they are busy bringing in stores it can get them past the critical time frame. The difference between a colony that swarms and one that doesn't can easily be 100# of honey. So if I could get to zero I'd be in the market for a new yaght :-).

Of course swarming is the bees natural reproductive behavior and is deeply embedded in their DNA. To control that can't be easy. I don't think we have a good understanding of the very initial conditions that start the process. I do believe that once the switch has been flipped stopping it is very challenging. I start to worry with the first observation of elongated cups, most of the time a good month before the swarm leaves. I've tried pulling a few frames of brood, giving more space, knocking down the cups, rearranging the brood nest all without reliable difference. Some decide to swarm some don't. What is the difference between two large colonies, side by side, that do or don't swarm? Has anyone successfully selected for low swarm yet maintained all the other desired qualities?

Paul Hosticka
Dayton WA

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