< Looking at your hive every six days is creating the situation for your
bees to swarm, at the start of spring your whole hive should be inspected
for swarming cells and the state of your hive, then if you keep placing more
supers on this hive, you are allowing the bees to store nectar and return to
you.>
I think it is not wise for David Goble to generalise.  Climates, flora and
seasons vary from country to country.  What may work in Australia certainly
would not work here.  We have a swarming season extending over two months,
May and June, and one early inspection will not tell us that the bees intend
swarming in three weeks time.  Piling on the supers is not much help if
nothing is coming in.
This spring poor health and poor weather combined  to make me ignore routine
inspections. Since my bees are normally of a non-swarming strain I trusted
them to behave.  It was not to be.  Three swarms in three days and a hasty
check revealed three more almost ready to go.  This is an abnormal situation
and is happening to many beekeepers.  Freak cold weather conditions have
kept the bees out of the supers and in the broodchambers, causing
congestion.  Experts tell us that congestion leads to unequal or
insufficient distribution of queen pheromone, leading to an urge to swarm.
Whatever the reason, the bees have gone crazy, more so because the weather
is so unsuitable for swarming.  One sunny day to drive them out, followed by
four days of cold and wet, as happened recently, means that some swarms that
got away will probably starve.  A classic example of blind instinct where,
for once, the bees have got it wrong.  Tough on the virgins left behind as
there is so little mating weather.
 
As regards whether inspections cause stress, I do not know.  I do know from
many trials that a routine inspection for cells carried out around midday or
early afternoon during  a nectar flow causes a loss of  four to six pounds
of nectar for that day but the next day everything from the work point of
view is back to normal.  This is a small price to pay if it prevents the
loss of a swarm.                       Sid P.
_________________________________________________________________
Sid Pullinger                    Email :  [log in to unmask]
36, Grange Rd                Compuserve:  [log in to unmask]
Alresford
Hants SO24 9HF
England