> Quick question. Do the workers, or the queen decide it is time to >swarm? I fancy there are almost as many answers to this question as there are subscribers to Bee-L. FWIW, from my reading and 10 years experience, the hive makes a decision to swarm. The triggers are a plentiful nectar/pollen source, large population of bees and lack of storage space for honey. However all factors do not have to be present for a hive to swarm and in some seasons hive will throw swarm after swarm until they are down to a handful of bees. It is possible to reverse the swarming decision and I found L.E. Snelgrove's book "Swarming - its control and prevention" fascinating. There are different methods depending on whether queen cells have been sealed or are still unsealed. After several readings I decided the basic principle was "To prevent swarming, separate the queen and any potential queens from the field bees." This can be done by Demaree boards, various dividers, changing hive position, temporary placement of queen and unsealed brood in nucleus for later uniting, depending on your time and interest. R.E. Snelgrove considered it took 7 days for the swarming instinct to be reversed, although it will be triggered again by favourable conditions. My basic rule of thumb is that the hive will swarm when the queen ceases to lay for any reason. The nurse bees then have no larvae of the right age to feed and the hive seeks corrective action. The queen may cease to lay because of a sudden failure of nectar flow into the hive, by not enough room due to the frames being filled with brood or honey, she is trapped in one section of the hive, recently introduced or whatever. The pause in laying may only be for 1 day but the hive may still move into swarming mode. My swarm prevention starts with placing 2 empty brood frames in the brood box and removing any fully sealed honey frames. I continue to do this during the season at any time the brood box is filled with either sealed brood or honey. If I find queen cells I separate the queen and unsealed brood from the field bees by using a divider, with field bees using the entrance and a separate entrance for nurse bees. The queen will then destroy the queen cells without further intervention. This does not always work. However it is far more effective than attempting to destroy every queen cell. As long as the hive is in swarm mode, the bees will continue to start queens. In answer to your other question, when the hive is in swarm mode, or when the queen is failing, the bees will start queen cells from freshly hatched worker larvae. These are usually started on consecutive days leaving the hive some flexibility in the timetable. Supersedure cells are usually 2 or 3 to the hive where swarm cells may be about 10 - 15. Betty McAdam HOG BAY APIARY Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island J.H. & E. McAdam<[log in to unmask] http://kigateway.kin.on.net/hogbay/hogbay1.htm Why not visit the South Australian Superb Websites Ring? http://kw.mtx.net/sawebring/sawebring.html