At 01:17 PM 2/20/98 GMT, you wrote:
>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?
>
>
Tom,
 
I am not an old timer but this behavior sounds a bit excessive to me.  Have
you measured the vibrations in the ground from these lawn mowers?  Can you
actually feel vibrations on the hives?  I would think that the ground would
do a good job absorbing vibrations unless you live on a rock with no topsoil.
 
I think that loud noise from the lawnmowers might cause more vibration in
the wood boxes (acoustic vibrations) than vibrations picked up from the
ground.
 
I normally drive my loud and smelly, John Deere garden tractor right next
to my hives without any noticable adverse reactions..... and I figure the
extra hydrocarbons and motor oil in the air are helping to kill the varroa
mites by plugging their pores. :-)
 
Good luck and relax,
 
Tom in Northern Illinois