>     Quick question.  Do the workers, or the queen decide it is time to
>swarm?

I fancy there are almost as many answers to this question as there are
subscribers to Bee-L.

FWIW, from my reading and 10 years experience, the hive makes a decision to
swarm. The triggers are a plentiful nectar/pollen source, large population
of bees and lack of storage space for honey.  However all factors do not
have to be present for a hive to swarm and in some seasons hive will throw
swarm after swarm until they are down to a handful of bees.

It is possible to reverse the swarming decision and I found L.E. Snelgrove's
book "Swarming - its control and prevention" fascinating. There are
different methods depending on whether queen cells have been sealed or are
still unsealed.  After several readings I decided the basic principle was
"To prevent swarming, separate the queen and any potential queens from the
field bees."  This can be done by Demaree boards, various dividers, changing
hive position, temporary placement of queen and unsealed brood in nucleus
for later uniting, depending on your time and interest.  R.E. Snelgrove
considered it took 7 days for the swarming instinct to be reversed, although
it will be triggered again by favourable conditions.

My basic rule of thumb is that the hive will swarm when the queen ceases to
lay for any reason.  The nurse bees then have no larvae of the right age to
feed and the hive seeks corrective action.  The queen may cease to lay
because of a sudden failure of nectar flow into the hive, by not enough room
due to the frames being filled with brood or honey, she is trapped in one
section of the hive, recently introduced or whatever.  The pause in laying
may only be for 1 day but the hive may still move into swarming mode.

My swarm prevention starts with placing 2 empty brood frames in the brood
box and removing any fully sealed honey frames.  I continue to do this
during the season at any time the brood box is filled with either sealed
brood or honey. If I find queen cells I separate the queen and unsealed
brood from the field bees by using a divider, with field bees using the
entrance and a separate entrance for nurse bees. The queen will then destroy
the queen cells without further intervention.

This does not always work.

However it is far more effective than attempting to destroy every queen
cell.  As long as the hive is in swarm mode, the bees will continue to start
queens.

In answer to your other question, when the hive is in swarm mode, or when
the queen is failing, the bees will start queen cells from freshly hatched
worker larvae.  These are usually started on consecutive days leaving the
hive some flexibility in the timetable.   Supersedure cells are usually 2 or
3 to the hive where swarm cells may be about 10 - 15.

Betty McAdam



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