So, do commercial beekeepers try to prevent swarms like hobby beekeepers?


Definatly.  We/they hate swarms.  Packages, nucs and pollination splits are the things we strive for most.  Make no mistake though,  we miss a lot.  From genetics to hours in a day,  its impractical for most of us to catch them all.

Most of your packages are a version of swarm control.  While there are many who raise bees for packages,  there are also many who shake strong hives to slow them down.

Splits are a strong standard,  call it making nucs is some yards,  or walk away splits.  Depends on your market.

Bees in trees are a waste of resources,  so we plan to avoid it!


Most years my operation and the 2 others close by plan on a 4 fold increase. 1/2 of which is sold 1/2 of which makes up for deadouts and summer losses.

Take my buddy Don,  for example.  He brought back 200 hives from almonds.  Hes sold 120 nucs and is right at 600 going into curbits next week.  His methods have also produced a lot of swarms.

A few hundered of mine this year got missed due to travel,  those are way behind the other hives.  They did pack on some honey,  but being queenless for 3/4 weeks really hurts the population and the ability to split and make honey.


Funny thing this weekend,  not sure why but Don let some Chicago hobby guy come down and set hives on one of our Canola fields.( nice guy he is)  This guy  has read and heard some talk about how bees build on Canola.  While he did manage to make a split,  (4 into 8)  the difference between hobby hives and commercial hives could not have been more stark.  Sometimes we forget how much difference active management can make.   Setting his double deeps on pallets was simple,  each one couldn't have weighed 75lbs.   the hives right next to him we split once and each hive weighed in around 260 with honey (1285 per pallet)   


Charles

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