Beverley
Beekeepers' Association
The
local Beekeeping Association for East Yorkshire
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Swarming
– Its prevention and control
Whole books have been written on swarming and many clever
methods have been devised to control it. This is not
surprising as the last thing a beekeeper wants is to
discover he has lost a swarm and with it his honey harvest
for the year.
A colony swarms when it realises that it is becoming too
large for its hive and will be capable of dividing into two
colonies, both with an excellent chance of survival.
Without the instinct to swarm honey bees would not be with
us today. How bees do this is complex. The queen produces a
pheromone, known as ‘queen substance’. This is spread among
the colony and helps to maintain a cohesion and common
purpose. As the colony expands the amount of queen
substance per bee declines; similarly as a queen grows
older she produces less queen substance. The effect of
either or both of these is to alert the bees to the need
for a new queen. In the case of an ageing or failing queen
this will be a replacement queen or supersedure whilst with
a large and expanding population it will be colony division
or swarming.
Swarming
Bees
swarm generally in the months of May and June, during times
of plenty when there are drones around for mating. The
first sign for the beekeeper is the production of queen
cells in the brood nest. There are usually several queen
cells which are shown in the diagram. The beekeeper must
act quickly and decisively if he is to prevent a swarm.
This is why regular inspections on a weekly basis are
essential from mid-April to the end of July. Methods of
controlling swarming are explained further on in the notes.
Supersedure
Supersedure
can occur at any time in the summer. There is generally
only one queen cell produced and this is usually towards
the top of the frame. Once you are convinced that the queen
is going to be superseded there is no action needed from
the beekeeper.
There is a tendency to cut down queen cells when they are
first seen. This is not good policy and will not prevent
swarming. Queen cells are the future of the colony and
frames with queen cells on should be handled very gently,
especially once sealed. Finally, bees produce queen cups or
‘play cells’ which can be confused with queen cells by a
novice beekeeper. A queen cell should contain an egg or
larva (grub).