This is my second year as a beekeeper and I saw swarming activity in my
one overwintered hive.  My beekeeping mentor gave me advice, cutting
queen cells and adding a super.  This hive was jammed with bees and
looked better than any of his hives.  He marvelled at how prolific my
queen was and how well my first hive was doing.  Said it was one of the
best he had seen in a long time.  I followed his advice and eventually
my bees swarmed anyway, leaving many more queen cells than I had just removed.
 
If I could take it all back now, I wish that I had just split the hive.
 I'd have my original hive plus another with her genetics.  Now I have
a hive that is stunted waiting for a new queen to mate and then lay
eggs.  This is a tremendous setback in the heat of the Texas honeyflow.
 
Every experienced beekeeper that I've met has told me not to fight the
bees instinct but use it to my advantage.  The bees are driven by their
instinct to swarm and contradictory to their advice, beekeepers fight
the swarming instinct.  Why not just swarm for them by splitting the
hive and not losing your bees?  Do split hives still regularly swarm?
Next year, after this year's experience, I'm going to split any hive
that shows an inclination to swarm.  I'd rather have my bees and an
extra hive than to have them swarm and risk losing them.
 
Ted Wout, Red Oak, TX, 2nd year beekeeper, 8 hives (should be 9 hives)
______________
You are correct.
         While we are discussing swarm control in all it's facets nobody has
mentioned what I consider to be the easiest check. On the hive examination
'look for eggs' a hive will not swarm leaving open brood.
        So.. subject to timing ie. how old the open brood or eggs are helps
to determine if and when that hive will swarm.
        If you don't find eggs, then you're probably too late. In that case,
make a false swarm and split, unless of course you want to give your bees to
a neighbour!!
 
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