> You've clearly put a spell over your bees, Pete!

I knew there would be some skepticism. I suppose that is why I haven't really opened up about it that much. But Delia Allen seems to have seen the same sort of thing:

> Prior to the present investigations, routine measures designed to prevent swarming had been used in the Departmental apiary, and it was expected that their absence would result in a considerable incidence of swarming. The results obtained came as a surprise: only 3 colonies swarmed out of a total of 81 in the four years (Allen, 1965).

The measures they refer to are things like cell cutting, brood manipulation, etc. They always gave plenty of room for brood and honey. On the other hand, Tom Seeley reports regular annual swarming in unmanaged un-supered hives, as one would expect. 

I think swarming in commercial outfits has a lot to do with being unable to get to the hives at exactly the right time, for various reasons. Also, the use of full boxes of drawn combs vs. new frames enters into it. 

Swarming was a nightmare during the comb honey era; much less so when folks began to run for extracted honey exclusively, using the same combs for decades.

PLB

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