Your instincts are right...for more than a hundred years one of the swarm
prevention methods has been to create artificial swarms.  A great number of
those methods were developed in the days before extractors when 100% of the
honey raised was comb honey.  We have a book in the US "The Comb Honey
Book", by Richard Taylor, that is the only one I know of that outlines all
the various methods of creating artificial swarms.  Each is quite
complicated, so I won't try to describe them.  Thorne in England might carry
it or have something similar.  E-mail [log in to unmask]  This sells for
$10 in the US and I will air mail you a copy if you like and will reimburse
me.  The airmail might cost you as much as the book.
Vibration does disturb bees.  However, I wouldn't worry about vibration from
lawn mowers even right up to the hive.  Mostly bees will just ignore lawn
mowing (I have several colonies on a neighbors property that he keeps mowed
with no difficulty) but if there is a large bee population and a sudden
dearth (as we get here sometimes in August) a person passing close to the
hive several times, with the discharge aimed at the hive, might get attacked
by the guards.  In this instance it would be the motion of the person
combined with the discharge that would bother them enough to attack.
 
Lloyd Spear
[log in to unmask]
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Computer Software Solutions Ltd <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, February 20, 1998 8:29 AM
Subject: Beating the bees to it!
 
 
>This is my second year in beekeeping. I keep my bees in my small garden
>surrounded by neighbours. I presently have 4 hives and I have arranged to
>ship 2 of them to an out apiary when the season starts (April in Ireland).
>
>I have no doubt but that I am facing swarming this year. What I was
thinking
>of was, is it possible to force the bees to build queen cells, create
>artificial swarms and get most of the swarming over with in my timetable
>rather than in theirs?
>
>Then I can relax about the manipulations (desirable in my environment), and
>the chances of additional swarms must be reduced. Has anybody got an
>organised system in operation to handle this type of situation?
>
>On another topic:
>
>I read that vibration really annoys bees. They appear to pick up the
>vibrations through their feet. What I was thinking of was to put a thick
>sheet of foam rubber under the hives to dampen down the vibrations caused
by
>neighbours' lawn mowers. Any comments on the merits or otherwise of this?
>
>Thanks for any help
>
>Sincerely
>Tom Barrett
>49 South Park
>Foxrock
>Dublin 18
>Ireland
>
>e mail [log in to unmask]
>Tel + 353 1 289 5269
>Fax + 353 1 289 9940
>
>Latitude  53 Deg 16' 12.8" North
>Longitude 06 Deg  9' 44.9" West