Otto,

Mike and others have provided excellent advice on swarm prevention & control.

I'd like add one more - are your hives in the shade?  Heat often induces/aggravates swarming.  If you place #4 mesh screens over the inner covers, put a 1" block over each corner of the screen, and then put the telescoping cover over the blocks, it will provide some welcome convection.  If it's still too hot, remove the inner cover altogther.  In all cases, put the screen-side down to maintain the bee space and keep things neat.

The screens will cool the hives and the convection will help to speed up the ripening of the nectar which also reduces the swarm drive.  Adding an upper entrance in a super also helps keep things cooler.

If you find your bee populations get too large - an otherwise good problem for a beekeeper :) - consider using 3 deeps for the nest or use hive dividers to restrict queen laying to, say, 4 frames.  4 frames are very quick to check for the queen and any queen cells.

Waldemar
Long Island, NY

PS.  When I kept hives in a very HOT garage attic, I'd do away with the inner and outer covers in the summer.  I'd only place full-size #4 mesh screens over the top of the hives.  I always provided extra supers for space as well.  Rarely had a bee beard at the entrance on the garage wall.  Even when it got over 120 F in the attic.  Swarming was not an issue - I'd check hives a min. every 2 weeks.

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