George Imrie,
    I have recently discovered your Pink pages and consider your insights on management very similar to my own. I have
been mulling the theories on swarm prevention lately and reviewing timetables for reversing deep brood chambers.
    If a keeper maintains his colonies with 2 deeps for brood chambers and departs on an aggressive campaign of reversing
every 10-14 days he should significantly increase the efficiency of the queens laying because he allows her to do what her
natural tendencies are, keep walking upward to lay eggs. With a good eye and diligence you can keep her in the bottom box,
laying.
    Here's the rub, A good queen can lay a frame in 1 day. Considering good pollen and honey stores as picture perfect on
the frames( See "The Hive and the Honeybee:,1992, Figure 2, 2A, pg. 78-9 ), she will lay a complete frame per day
(personal observation, today I counted 3 deep frames of eggs! in 1 box.). Thus, in 10 days she has laid out 1, 10 frame
deep box. She moves to the next box and begins to lay in that box. 10 days later she moves up, ( you've diligently braved
the spring rains to maintain the reversal schedule)  and begins again. It is 20 days since she started laying in this box
the last time. The worker bees finish the pupal stage on the 20th day and begin to emerge on the 21st ( Laidlaw, 1979 "The
Hive..."'1992, pg. 83). The timing is very close and in fact will run over top of each other as the adults must clean out
the cells and prepare them to be re-laid and there are other delays. As the season rolls on drones will appear, using a
cell for a minimum of 24 days ("The Hive and the Honeybee" pg. 83, 1992), The increase in the field force will add nectar
and pollen to cells - hopefully (foraging begins 18-19 days after hatching, "The Hive..., 1992, fig. 5, pg. 86). Again, we
see a cycle setup to last less time than the cycle of egg - dult. Less and less cells become available to lay in as we
help the queen lay more efficiently. Don't forget we're feeding the ladies 1:1 to help 'em move along.
    This means no matter what we do, eventually the queen will spend idle time looking for any old cell to lay in  maybe
even supers if there's any available. The workers have built swarm cells along the lower or outer edges of the frames and
if everything is proceeding as it should she will have to lay in these cells as there will be nowhere else to lay.
    Seems to me there are several ways to break this cycle of having the queen return to a box to lay before there are any
cells available to lay in.
    1) Use a box with sufficient frames to allow the brood to exit their cocoons and the cells cleaned prior to the queen
arriving to lay in the cells again. Say 11-13 frames (heavy).
    2) Use a larger frame so that the queen cannot lay an entire frame in 1 day. Thus it would take longer than 10 days to
fill 1 box.
    3) Periodically remove everything from the frame (s) and replace it with clean drawn comb to give the queen more room.
 
    4) Use more than 2 brood chambers to give the queen 30 days  (deeps) or 21-30 days (mediums) of laying room.
    5) Combination of the above. Not many of these are practical and some silly, but would provide a solution in this
theoretical exercise.
 
Comments Welcome
Thom Bradley
NC Certified Beekeeper (trying not to be a BEEHaver)
20 colonies, 3 yrs.
Chesapeake, VA