Swarm Information ????

[sc-bee]

Have had a colony swarm several times this year (the same colony) and see where I made a few mistakes but a learning experience. Talked to a friend the other day who had a colony also swarm three times.
A couple of newbee questions---
How often do you think a colony throws more than one swarm in succession of each other?? I guess sister queens swarming??? Is this quite common?

If you catch a colony before it swarms and make a split(even split) before it swarms, if you leave more than one swarm cell after splitting in the parent colony will it sometimes swarm anyway or does the new queen take care of taking the others queens out.

[Beekeeper Bill]

sc-bee

I have a hive that I suspect swarmed three times this spring. I say suspect because I came home to find all three swarms waiting in a tree. one swarm each day. so I am like you wondering what happened that the first out didnt kill the rest.
I have two hives but only one had swarm cells, and lots of them. it also had a ton of bees in it.

Bill

[R.L. Bee]

I had the same problem this spring after the first swarm ther maybe several secondary swarms that swarm with a virgin queen until they get the hive down to the numbers they want.Go to Michael bush web site he explaines it in much more detail.

[Michael Bush]

>How often do you think a colony throws more than one swarm in succession of each other??

They will be looking for a chance for a reproductive swarm about this time of year. The afterswarms are really overcrowding swarms. If you put lots of supers on you'll get less afterswarms. If you keep the brood nest open you'll get less swarms altogether.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm

> I guess sister queens swarming???

Daughter queens. The first is the mother, the rest are her daughters, I guess the rest (not counting the first) are sisters, yes.

> Is this quite common?

Yes.

>If you catch a colony before it swarms and make a split(even split) before it swarms, if you leave more than one swarm cell after splitting in the parent colony will it sometimes swarm anyway or does the new queen take care of taking the others queens out.

Sometimes they swarm even though you split them and even though you removed all but one queen cell. I don't worry about the queen cells, other than making sure the half without the queen has at least one and both have at least one if I can't find the queen. The queens are the cause of the swarms. I worry about opening the brood nest back up and making sure they have plenty of room in the supers. Sometimes they will swarm no matter what you do, especially if they have made up their mind, as indicated by swarm cells.

The idea, of course, is to KEEP them from making up their mind to swarm. For a LOT of detail on this and on another swarm control method (Nectar Management or Checkerboarding), buy Walt Wright's manuscript.

If you would like to purchase a copy of Walt's manuscript, it's about 60 pages long and last I heard was $8 in a pdf by email or $10 on paper. You can contact him at this address: Walt Wright; Box 10; Elkton, TN 38455-0010; or WaltWright_at hotmail dot com (Encoded to avoid the spambots. Don't forget the underscore).

[ May 08, 2006, 09:42 PM: Message edited by: Michael Bush ]