By: Dr. Karén Avetisyan
Honey bees reproduce naturally through swarming. This instinct developed on the long way of evolution. It occurs when there is not enough work for bees and the bee population is too dense; when a queen is old; and when the honey bees’ genetics dictate a high swarm instinct in their colonies. The swarm can leave the hive with a mated or virgin queen. Depending on bees’ swarm instinct level, other swarms may fly out again from the same colony after a week, or the swarm can give another swarm.
For what reasons do honey bees swarm?
Bees swarm because the hive is overpopulated and cannot accommodate all of the bees. Or, the bees do not have enough space to store their honey. Often, climate is a common cause of bee swarms. Each bee needs more space in the beehive to maintain a lower temperature when it is hot outside. Due to poor ventilation and high humidity, especially after rain, the bees find these conditions to be intolerable and prepare to swarm.
The old queen is another problem. She may have a tendency to produce insufficient numbers of eggs while a honey bee colony is producing a lot of honey. In this case, the bees require a new queen that can satisfy the requirements of their colony and may swarm depending on how strong that instinct is in their genetics.
Why is it important for beekeepers to avoid having swarmed colonies and add the quantity of hives by swarms?
When trying to add the quantity of hives, it is not a good idea to rely on swarming. As swarming is uncontrollable, beekeepers cannot plan and catch the swarms. For instance, if a beekeeper owns 10 hives, and wants to make it 15 in this year, no one can really tell how many swarms will fly out and how many can be caught. In addition, doing that a lot, increases bees’ propensity to swarm, which will eventually overwhelm the apiary with uncontrollable swarms. Swarming weakens the colony. The population of bees in the hive that produces the swarm is approximately half of what it was before the swarm. The honey bees there don’t work well that year and become “sluggish”. That hive will not produce a good amount of honey or any other byproducts of bees in that year.
How can we understand that bees will swarm?
The hive is going to swarm if the bees are bearding (early stage sign and fixable), the population of bees is too dense (early stage sign, fixable), there are a lot of open and capped queen cells, especially at the bottom edge of the frames, the bees are chewing the hive entrance, they aren’t working well (late sign) and the bees aren’t actively flying out of the hive.
How can bees be prevented from swarming at different stages of instinct development?
A beekeeper needs to take several steps at once to prevent swarms. That includes adding an upper box when open brood (eggs and larvae) can be seen on seven frames out of 10 in the brood box, keep young queens, not more than two years old (for backyard beekeeping), don’t use queens or queen cells which are originated from swarmed colonies, use queens from subspecies which are less inclined to swarming, ventilate well the hives in Summertime or when bees are “bearding”, use a screen board and a quilt box, make one inch diameter holes attached with mash on the upper boxes, pay attention to the hives immediately next to the swarmed colonies, as they may swarm later, even in a month. The reason is that swarming bees give information to their neighbor bees and depending on the level of this colony swarm instinct, they can awaken them.
If there are already queen cells, a beekeeper can cut them off and insert beeswax foundation sheets after each comb. Another method is to take a big split (share the colony) and give the main hive a lot of beeswax foundation sheets. Only cutting off the queen cells will not help.
If previous-mentioned methods don’t help, by using a ramp as shown in Picture 1, a beekeeper can remove swarming bees from the hive. At the bottom of the ramp, the swarming bees will congregate and the hive will be attended by normal bees. The bees under the ramp should be accommodated into the new hive by giving them beeswax foundation sheets, open brood (eggs, larvae) and honeycombs per their population.
If bees are already swarming, what should a beekeeper do?
Narrow the hive entrance so that you can easily catch the queen when she comes out. Cage her and bring a new hive to the area where swarming bees are flying (close to the colony that is giving the swarm). Use a few beeswax foundation sheets and install the caged queen into the new hive. Give the latter some open brood and food frames after the majority of bees have gathered around the queen. Close the hive up. At the end of the day, the beekeeper can release the queen or let the bees do that. If the new hive remains in the same apiary location, it can be moved 1.5 to 1.7 feet daily towards the desirable place.
By Dr. Karén Avetisyan
Bee and Comb, LLC
Email: karen.avetisyan@beekeepingservices.com