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Swarm Prevention Practices Swarm Prevention Practices Hive body reversals, queen isolation, using double screens and queen excluders... DBA - February 2021 Ray Walker [email protected] Swarm Prevention: Practices & Activities 1. Keep young queens (lower tendency to swarm) 2. Provide room (open cells) for queen to lay eggs • Remove old honey/pollen frames from nest • Add frames of drawn comb 3. Provide sufficient nectar storage space (supers) 4. Position hives for early sunshine & afternoon shade 5. Provide ventilation (entrances, SBB) 6. Reverse hive bodies: when night-time temps >45º F 7. Remove or harvest queen cells every 7-10 days - Do you want to increase # colonies? Reversing Hive Bodies 1. Move top brood body downward to bottom, move bottom brood body upward to top (aka: reversal) 2. Cull 20% older brood comb - no brood comb > 5 years 3. If using 3 mediums for brood chamber, reverse twice: top position to bottom, middle position to bottom two separate steps, ~ 2 weeks apart 4. Provides queen location to lay eggs and move upward Caution: Make certain nightime temperatures above 45ºF to avoid chilled brood Reversing Hive Bodies Swarm Prevention: Emergency Actions 1. Find and isolate the queen 2. Remove some brood: 3-5 frames • Relocate brood frames to weaker colonies • Add frames of drawn comb back into nest 3. Double Screen Method 4. Demaree Method, queen excluders Isolating the Queen in a Nucleus Hive 1. Find queen and remove the frame she’s laying eggs in 2. Place frame in the middle of an empty 5 frame nucleus hive body 3. Select frame with open brood & some capped brood, put next to queen 4. Select frame with drawn & mostly empty comb, put next to queen 5. Select frame with honey and pollen and place on edge of nuc Frame with queen Follower Board or Division Feeder Honey & Pollen Shake in some Open Brood & Drawn Comb nurse bees... some Capped Brood Using a Double Screen Board Why: To increase apiary size & raise local bee stock Queenless: Qcells, larva mostly capped brood Double Screen Super(s) Queen, 1-2 frames Queenright: brood, open comb, food Tip: Add excluder for 1 night (nurse bees move up), then replace excluder with a Double Screen the next day. Demaree Method - Using Multiple Excluders Why: Increase honey production, keep apiary same size Queenright: Remove all Qcells Capped brood Queen Super(s) Excluder Queen, 1-2 frames brood, open comb Tip: Lots of hive manipulations & frequent inspections - requires dedication, time & practice to perfect this method (find a mentor who Demarees)... Demaree Swarm Prevention Method 1. If you find queen cells during an inspection, remove the brood box and place it off to one side. 2. Place a new brood box on the original floor. Add frames of drawn comb and foundation, leaving a gap in the middle of the box. 3. Go through the original box and find the queen. 4. Place the frame with the queen in the middle of the new brood box on the original floor. This frame must contain no queen cells. 5. Add a queen excluder and super(s) above the queen excluder 6. Add a second queen excluder. 7. Place the original brood box on top of the queen excluder. 8. Go through the upper brood box and remove every queen cell Demaree Swarm Prevention Method Leave the colony for one week. At the next inspection you should only need to check the top brood box (i.e. the original one). 1. Carefully inspect every frame and remove every queen cell. If you miss any queen cells there’s a good chance the colony will swarm. 2. Close up the hive and leave the brood in the top box to emerge. 3. About 25 days after conducting the first inspection (1 above, where you first found QC’s) you can remove the upper brood box from which all brood will have now emerged. References 1. Mid-Atlantic Apicultural Research & Extention Consortium - MAAREC Publication 3.4, Dewey Caron 2. The Beekeeper’s Handbook, Fourth Edition, pg. 154-161 Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile 3. Honey Bee Biology, 2013, pg.230-234 Dewey Caron & Lawrence Connor 4. The Apiarist Blog: https://www.theapiarist.org/demaree-swarm-control/.
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