>I've done everything I can think of shy of
>clipping queen wings, which I find distasteful.  I just looked out and now
>there is another swarm in the same tree, this one much larger. I think I'm
>giving up beekeeping.
 
Oh, no!  Don't give up!  Keeping bees is like getting rid of fleas on a dog:
 try everything, then do it all again.  And again.  Sooner or later you'll
succeed.
 
You don't have to clip the queen's wings to keep them from swarming, and in
my opinion, clipping doesn't do any good anyway...just delays the inevitable.
 By the time the queen is ready to fly, the bees are determined to swarm, and
if the old queen can't do it, the first virgin to hatch will.  You need to
prevent the swarming impulse from occurring, not prevent the queen from
flying.
 
Make sure the brood chamber is not congested.  If the queen has room to lay,
the bees are less likely to swarm.  In the spring, during swarming season, we
make divides from our stronger colonies by pulling out several frames of
brood and young bees and making a new colony with them.  This usually makes
the bees think they've swarmed, and they settle down fine for the rest of the
season.
 
Other possiblities:  With a young queen, the bees are less likely to swarm.
 Stick some foundation in the hive to give the young bees something to do...
sometimes that helps.  As a last resort, go through the hive every 2 weeks
and kill swarm cells--time consuming and liable to fail (we all miss a cell
now and then)--but worth a try when all else fails.
 
That said, sometimes I, "poor beekeeper" that I am, have to blame the bees.
 In 1994 (or was it 1993?), nothing we did could prevent our bees from
swarming.  Hives would swarm, and swarm again, and again and again, sometimes
until they had swarmed themselves to death.  Other beekeepers in the area had
the same problem.  It was just a great year for swarms.  Maybe weather has
something to do with it... maybe it's sun spots.  Who knows.
 
Good luck!
Don't worry, next year's bees are bound to have a completely different
problem.
Shawna Roberts
Gypsy Bees
Hollister, CA