>QUESTION:  I've somewhere gotten the idea that to stymie swarming that you
can sometimes add another brood box and then checkerboard the brood in the
existing hive with frames of either drawn comb and/or foundation.  Have I
miss read something and picked up a process that is detrimental to the bees?

The minimizing of swarming is often difficult (I doubt that there is any way
of *preventing* swarming other than going through every brood frame of every
hive every 10 days).  There are many opinions on management techniques, most
of which center around what appear to me to be the three main biological
aspects that lead to swarming:



1.  Time of year--most swarms occur in spring following good forage for
build up.  In my area, that begins about apple blossom time.



2.  The age of the queen--bees in colonies with older queens are more prone
to swarm.



In general, there is not much that the beekeeper can do about either of the
above, other than starving colonies (which works very well--moving hives to
poor forage will stop swarm prep), or by requeening.  That brings us to
condition number 3--the filling of the cavity.



Bees did not evolve living in large hives, but rather in tree cavities,
which are usually much smaller than the hive volumes that we currently use.
Once a colony has filled the cavity with comb, stores, bees, and brood, then
it has every reason to reproduce—that is, to throw of swarms.



So by understanding what signals tell the colony that the cavity is
“filled,” then the beekeeper can alter one or more conditions in the hive to
prevent the bees from determining that it is time to swarm.



A few main conditions come to mind:



1.  Is the population crowded for the cavity, causing congestion that
restricts the transmission of queen pheromone?  Extra room, especially under
the brood nest may help.



2.  Is there a great deal of sealed brood, meaning that a population
explosion is imminent, and that the remaining colony can quickly
recover?  Removal
of sealed brood or the various methods of splitting the colony will
generally eliminate the swarm impulse.



3.  Is there available comb, or space to build comb?  The bees may not
recognize comb placed above the honey band as available comb.  They will not
recognize foundation placed above a queen excluder above a honey band as
available comb!  One must add comb in a manner such that the bees hop right
on it and start using it.  Any number of comb additions or manipulations may
work.



4.  Do the bees sense that there are adequate stores and are those stores
starting to crowd the brood nest? (Walt Wright has good observations on
this).  Focus on breaking he honey band.  Checkerboarding or the reversal of
the brood boxes create empty comb space through the honey band.



5.  Perhaps the most important factor is whether the queen has filled all
the available brood space with brood—are there still empty brood combs
available in which for her to lay?  Checkerboarding or adding supers of
drawn comb immediately above the brood nest may make the colony “feel’ that
the broodnest has not yet been filled.



Any or all of the above methods can be used to minimize swarming—I use them
all in my operation, depending upon conditions, urgency, and time available.
After swarm season passes, I may combine splits back in order to produce
strong colonies that can take advantage of the main honeyflow, which follows
swarm season in my area by a few weeks.  Timing is everything!



In my opinion, rather than getting stuck on any particular method for swarm
prevention, instead understand what factors lead colonies to swarm, and then
do something to change those conditions in the hive.


Randy Oliver

At the peak of swarming in the Sierra foothills.  Luckily, rain is keeping
the bees in the hives, but all hell is going to break loose when the weather
clears in two days!

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