This time of the year, the bees are really starting to bust out of the seams of their hives. Stronger colonies are in full swing, while weaker colonies are trying to build up their numbers to at least become stronger by seasons end. Curiously enough, both situations can also spark swarm behavior for both types of colonies,especially in Carniolans (Apis mellifera carnica). Carniolans have a higher tendency to swarm than, say, Italians or Buckfasts, so of course keeping Carniolans can be a bit tricky and nerve wracking.
A few words about swarming. The act of swarming is a natural occurrence, and is necessary for the propagation of honey bees. Since the queen mates only once in her lifetime and each colony only has once queen at any given time, the ability to procreate depends on building a colony to a sizable amount and then by splitting the colony in two. Honey bees, of course, have a brilliant way of doing this. The first thing that needs to happen before a colony can swarm is they need to have field bees. The field bees are the “veterans” of the hive and are proven in carry honey far distances. A colony cannot swarm without taking honey with them, otherwise, they’d be moving into a new hive with no food and they would quickly starve. The second thing that needs to happen is that the bees need to raise, or at least prepare, a new queen. The amazing thing is that most people, including yours truly, think that the queen calls all the shots in the hive. This is not true. The decision to swarm or not is made by the colony as a whole. That means that the colony decides if preparations need to be made and then these preparations are implemented.
If a colony intends to swarm, and the queen cell is present, they normally will swarm shortly after the queen cell (or in these instances it is also called a swarm cell) has been capped. In other words, a beekeeper has basically eight days to find a swarm cell before his colony says “Auf wiedersehen!” Now, to be clear, this is a natural process in the lives of bees, but it isn’t very ideal for a beekeeper who is looking to harvest honey (see my comments above about field bees). A beekeeper can help colonies procreate by splitting the colonies into what we call nucleus colonies. This is beneficial to both bee and beekeeper in that one, it is a controlled split of the colony, and two, the beekeeper can treat the bees for mites.
Fine, that was more than just a few words, but in reality, there is a whole lot more to talk about regarding swarming. Anyway, having said that, I want to mention that my two colonies (one very strong, the other slowly picking up speed) both showed me signs of preparing to swarm. I needed to take immediate action.
The first thing a beekeeper MUST do before get too carried away, is establish that the colony has a queen. I have mentioned this before in earlier posts, but it is worth mentioning again. The queen is alive and well if we either see her or we see freshly laid eggs. This is crucial when trying to decipher the behavior of the hive. If, for instance the queen is not present, then it is an absolute MUST that the beekeeper not disturb any queen cells. Otherwise, the colony will be rendered queen-less and will perish. If, however, the queen is present, then the beekeeper should break out the queen cells to prevent swarming.
After swarm cells have been broken out, the beekeeper needs to try to figure out what to do to suppress the swarm behavior. There are several things that can be done. The first thing, we can give the bees more room to build. This means a second brood chamber or a honey super with wax foundations.
Another possibility is to give them a drone frame to build on. I cut the drone frame out of the weaker colony (Chewbacca) to give them a chance to draw it out again. The following is a photo of what drone comb looks like. Notice the size of the cells are significantly larger than worker cells.
Most of the time, swarming tendencies come from lack of room to breathe, so this is actually an effective way of staving off swarms. A third thing is to make a nucleus colony. This can be done as a kind of last resort and the decision to do so must be made BEFORE breaking out any swarm cells. Basically, we take the frame(s) out with the queen cell, along with another frame with brood and bees and two food frames from the hive and then place them in an empty brood chamber. Then we take that box outside of the flight radius (ca. 3 miles / 5 km). The queen will emerge from the queen cell, fly out and mate, and then within a few weeks she will begin laying eggs. Once the new queen is laying eggs, we can return the hive to where the other colonies are, or we can leave them alone and let them pollinate and gather where they stand.
Creating a nucleus out of a colony that is hell bent on swarming is just one way that a beekeeper can control the splitting of a colony, effectively creating a "fake" swarm. Not too shabby! So, this is swarm season, and I plan on taking a week vacation starting on Saturday. Hopefully, the measures I took yesterday will keep the ladies happy for a couple more weeks.
A few words about swarming. The act of swarming is a natural occurrence, and is necessary for the propagation of honey bees. Since the queen mates only once in her lifetime and each colony only has once queen at any given time, the ability to procreate depends on building a colony to a sizable amount and then by splitting the colony in two. Honey bees, of course, have a brilliant way of doing this. The first thing that needs to happen before a colony can swarm is they need to have field bees. The field bees are the “veterans” of the hive and are proven in carry honey far distances. A colony cannot swarm without taking honey with them, otherwise, they’d be moving into a new hive with no food and they would quickly starve. The second thing that needs to happen is that the bees need to raise, or at least prepare, a new queen. The amazing thing is that most people, including yours truly, think that the queen calls all the shots in the hive. This is not true. The decision to swarm or not is made by the colony as a whole. That means that the colony decides if preparations need to be made and then these preparations are implemented.
To
prepare for a new queen, the colony will create several so called “play-cups”.
These special cells are created to face downward, so that if the queen lays in
egg in them, the bees can draw the cell down and cap it off. The reason for the
special cell, hanging in a vertical position, is so that the queen can reach
her full size. The bees will also load the cell with royal jelly and then after
the 8th day, they cap it off. This is important information for a
beekeeper, because we need to know when a colony is privy to getting out of
town.
If a colony intends to swarm, and the queen cell is present, they normally will swarm shortly after the queen cell (or in these instances it is also called a swarm cell) has been capped. In other words, a beekeeper has basically eight days to find a swarm cell before his colony says “Auf wiedersehen!” Now, to be clear, this is a natural process in the lives of bees, but it isn’t very ideal for a beekeeper who is looking to harvest honey (see my comments above about field bees). A beekeeper can help colonies procreate by splitting the colonies into what we call nucleus colonies. This is beneficial to both bee and beekeeper in that one, it is a controlled split of the colony, and two, the beekeeper can treat the bees for mites.
Fine, that was more than just a few words, but in reality, there is a whole lot more to talk about regarding swarming. Anyway, having said that, I want to mention that my two colonies (one very strong, the other slowly picking up speed) both showed me signs of preparing to swarm. I needed to take immediate action.
 | ||
| Bees are overflowing out of brood chamber. Time to give them more room Copyright Jason Hotham 2016 |
The first thing a beekeeper MUST do before get too carried away, is establish that the colony has a queen. I have mentioned this before in earlier posts, but it is worth mentioning again. The queen is alive and well if we either see her or we see freshly laid eggs. This is crucial when trying to decipher the behavior of the hive. If, for instance the queen is not present, then it is an absolute MUST that the beekeeper not disturb any queen cells. Otherwise, the colony will be rendered queen-less and will perish. If, however, the queen is present, then the beekeeper should break out the queen cells to prevent swarming.
After swarm cells have been broken out, the beekeeper needs to try to figure out what to do to suppress the swarm behavior. There are several things that can be done. The first thing, we can give the bees more room to build. This means a second brood chamber or a honey super with wax foundations.
 |
| Taking two center frames out for the second box, we placed one frame each of foundation to the outside of the brood nest. Copyright Jason Hotham 2016 |
 |
| Here we only have the two center frames in the center, the rest are foundation frames. Copyright Jason Hotham 2016 |
Another possibility is to give them a drone frame to build on. I cut the drone frame out of the weaker colony (Chewbacca) to give them a chance to draw it out again. The following is a photo of what drone comb looks like. Notice the size of the cells are significantly larger than worker cells.
 |
| Notice eggs in the cells? Second column of cells from the right, fourth cell up. See if you can spot more eggs. Who says you can only hunt for eggs on Easter? Copyright Jason Hotham 2016 |
Most of the time, swarming tendencies come from lack of room to breathe, so this is actually an effective way of staving off swarms. A third thing is to make a nucleus colony. This can be done as a kind of last resort and the decision to do so must be made BEFORE breaking out any swarm cells. Basically, we take the frame(s) out with the queen cell, along with another frame with brood and bees and two food frames from the hive and then place them in an empty brood chamber. Then we take that box outside of the flight radius (ca. 3 miles / 5 km). The queen will emerge from the queen cell, fly out and mate, and then within a few weeks she will begin laying eggs. Once the new queen is laying eggs, we can return the hive to where the other colonies are, or we can leave them alone and let them pollinate and gather where they stand.
Creating a nucleus out of a colony that is hell bent on swarming is just one way that a beekeeper can control the splitting of a colony, effectively creating a "fake" swarm. Not too shabby! So, this is swarm season, and I plan on taking a week vacation starting on Saturday. Hopefully, the measures I took yesterday will keep the ladies happy for a couple more weeks.
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