Hi Mike

I hadn't read 'Swarm Trigger Discovered' so I emailed the author, Eric
McArthur, and this was his reply:

<My theory on swarming hinges on the loss of condition of the queen due to
her exertions as her laying rate peaks.  I reckon she suffers a fall off in
the production of the queen substances, which fall below a 'yet to be
established critical' thus initiating queen cell building.  The "Swarm
Trigger Discovered" is the title of a book I wrote in the mid 80's, which
upset a lot of people, since I pre-empted the swarm mode by advocating
requeening colonies with a current year queen.  The book also discusses a
simple method of raising queens very early and an extremely efficient method
of feeding bees using thoroughly soaked sugar bags.
The queen 'fall off of condition' I dubbed 'The Fatigue Factor'.  It is now
an accepted fact that queen substance production by queen bees falls by 50%
each year.  Requeening every year reduces my swarming problems to virtually
nil!>

hope that helps

Gavin.

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