Hi all
I haven't had a hive swarm in my home apiary in decades. The outyard bees occasionally swarm (lack of close supervision). But, I usually split the hives in spring and make honey in summer and fall. Easing the congestion by splitting or stealing brood and bees, is the main technique that reduces swarming. Adding a lot of supers and getting the bees up in them is equally important (e.g., sticky supers, no queen excluders). According to Simpson:

> The reason why colonies in small hives swarm is probably that their adult bees are crowded together. To avoid adult-bee congestion, an average colony needs at least 130 litres (30 Langstroth combs) of hive space.

> Quantitatively important evidence of the behaviour of colonies that have more hive space than they need is now available. Out of 81 such colonies observed by Allen in Scotland, 43 had occupied queen cells at some time or other, but only 19 successfully reared young queens, and only two (or possibly three) actually swarmed.

J. Simpson (1972) Recent Research on Swarming Behaviour, Including Sound
Production, Bee World, 53:2, 73-86, DOI: 10.1080/0005772X.1972.11097409

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html