Swarming and Swarm Control

1. Swarmingand Swarm Control Belfast and District Beekeepers March 2013 Alan Jones

2. Swarm in a Tree

3. All living things have only two priorities • A To preserve their genes • B To passon their genes to the next generation • All living things develop or evolve strategies • to achieve these objectives • Success means the specie survives • Failure means extinction

4. All living creatures react to stimuli • Stress is a danger to the survival of a specie • Swarming is one result of stress stimuli • So stress leads to Swarming • (and Absconding)

5. Triggers To Stress Starvation (or threatened) following end of nectar flow or bad weather b) Congestion or overcrowding c) Lack of queen substance d) Heavy varroa infestation e) Opulent or over powerful colony

6. Triggers To Stress continued f) Disease or poisoning g) Queen too old – more than 3 years h) Damaged queen i) Isolation from queen NB. Some sub-species (races) and strains because of evolution or selection or breeding are very sensitive to triggers ie. swarmy bees

7. Hive Yearly Population Growth

8. When Bees Swarm • Humans marry and have children • Children leave the home to get married • Bees are different • The old mother leaves with some daughters • This is called a SWARM • They set out to build a new colony • The old nest is left intact for the new Queen

9. Impact of Swarming

10. Swarm Prevention • is the avoidance of triggers giving rise to stress • Good Husbandry is the Answer • Prevention is better than collecting swarms • Therefore: • Use a non-swarmy strain • (avoid using swarms from an unknown source) • Kill Queens in the Swarms you collect • and Replace with your own bred Queens • Use young queens – less than 3 years of age • Mark and Clip your Queens

12. Swarm Prevention continued Give plenty of room – in good time Replace old comb or frames of food with drawn comb or foundation in brood box so giving queen room to lay Pre-empt the bees’ need for working space So when bees are working on outer combs of brood box place a super on the hive

13. Plus • Stimulative fondant feed in early February • Feed in Summer if necessary • Avoid too much interference • Treat regularly as and when necessary to control varroa but only use effective treatments Select or buy bees from non-swarmy strains

15. Be Prepared • Have spare equipment available • which is clean and serviceable • Check your hives every 7 to 9 days • Only every 9 days if the Queen is Clipped • Act as soon as queen cells are seen with eggs • as otherwise the honey crop will be lost.

18. Swarm Controlwhen Queen cells have larvae in them Queen Brood Foraging Bees All swarm controls remove one of these Move Queen on frame to nuc box Move brood to new box Move hive to one side

19. Actions • Destroy or “knock-down” queen cells. • Every cell must be found! • Bees would probably make emergency queen cells • And have swarmed before you return a week later • b) Split the colony – place Queen into nuc box • c) Artificial Swarm – remove brood to new box • NB a) Very occasionally works • b) Often works • c) Nearly always works • For both methods in August kill the old queen • and unite the colonies if no increase required

22. Remember • Swarms are natural but they should not happen • so pre-empt them • Swarms are bad publicity - • public panic and local authorities could ban bees • Swarms for increase – • this was the ancient skep tradition • Increase by crude splits if no other skills or time • (for queens over 3 years of age) • Spare equipment – you need spare hive or nucleus • Avoid using prolific bees (eg Italians) • in a small hive (eg Nationals, WBCs)

23. Prime Swarm = 1st swarm to leave has nearly always the old queen Cast = subsequent swarms with a virgin queen. Late casts unlikely to survive the Winter Unmanaged colonies may swarm themselves to death Swarms spread bad genes, varroa and disease. Swarms are not for beginners – as there are usually old queens in swarms

24. Supersedure occurs in about 10% of colonies Always lookout for a second Queen Old and new queen often present on same frame SO NEW BEEKEEPERS Buy a Nucleus – your confidence grows as the hive grows

25. The cause of most swarms • can be found at home • when you look into a mirror

26. It is beekeepers who allow swarms. SO be a BEEKEEPER NOT a keeper of bees

27. THEARTIFICIAL SWARM And a Simple Method of Raising New Queens

28. Artificial Swarm • Start • ( May/June) A • Step 1 A A • Step 2 B

29. Go and have a cup of tea or coffeeat the same timedecide whether you want toincrease the number of your hives

30. All the foraging bees have gone to B Only nurse bees left in A Look through box to find the Queen Place her and frame she is on in B make sure there are no queen cells on this frame Go through all frames in A and mark one with an open queen cell with a big fat well fed grub KNOCK DOWN ALL OTHER CELLS Close hives and leave for a week

31. After 1 week • Step 3 • A • B • B • A • Step 4 Leave A for 3 weeks before inspecting. Add supers to B if necessary Unite in August keeping the queen from A

32. Uniting Two Colonies Squige the queen you do not want in B She should be marked as she is the old one Place a newspaper over the brood box B Cut a few slits with your hive tool Place brood box A with new queen on top Set queen excluder on Add all supers from both hives