> most of us know the usual manipulations used to control swarming.

I would say if one doesn't want to be splitting the hives in spring, the single most effective plan is to re-queen and super up. The odds of a hive with a recently mated queen swarming are pretty low. 

I worked with a package bee producer in No. California and the crew went through every hive and replaced the queens, as soon as new mated queens were available. It helped a lot that the queens were confined to 9 frames in the first story by a queen excluder. 

All I am saying is that it is do-able. Expensive, but may be worth it. Depends a bit on the source of the queens.

PLB

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