Double Deeps cause swarming

[alexlloyd]

The statement has been made, what are your thoughts. I wintered my hives both in double deeps and this spring, both survived, still had the upper box weighing a solid 50 plus pounds and I never fed any syrup. How does this lead to swarming.

[summer1052]

I use all singles here in south central TX. I had swarms. So there.

For what it's worth . . .
It was the YEAR for swarms. I had 53 calls in 16 days about swarms in the area. Big, beautiful swarms. Last year I had 2.

Sunspots? Alignment of the planets? Wet winter after 18 months of drought? I dunno. I just said, "Thank you, Lord," and kept knocking together nucs as fast as I could.

Summer

[honeyshack]

They swarm if there is no room for the queen to lay her eggs. Sometimes she is faster than the honey they eat. Add to the problem of bringing in nectar and pollen in the warm spring, and you might get a honey bound situation happening.
This year has been crazy. With April so warm it set the bees ahead of the regular spring schedule. We needed to be more on top of keeping the brood chamber open. Even the plants are ahead of normal.
When things like this happen, pull some frames of feed, save for a later date when the dearth happens...like maybe next week until the flowers come again...and add in empty frames. Some drawn and some just foundation to give the bees something to do.

As well, when you get days like early May where there is not alot of flying due to weather, they get to feeling crowded, and need something to do. So, they start go a bit "stir crazy" and make swarm cells.

Weather can be as much of a dependand on swarming as can crowding be. Long periods of confinement can lead to trouble about a week later.

Best of luck

[BEES4U]

Double deeps do not cause swarming!
It's all about management and queen stock!

Ernie

[waynesgarden]

Double Deeps cause swarming

So do top bar hives, triple mediums, hollow tree trunks, single deeps, wall cavities and any other place or hive configuration you can think of.

Sounds like a lesson in colony reproduction is in order.

Wayne

[Todd 64]

I`ve had swarms from colonies that have an empty second story. Lots of room to expand but they chose to swarm instead. Have others crowded in two storys and show no sigh of swarming. Most swarms have been with two year old queens. More room is usually better than not enough but theres always an exception to the rule. Are swarming dates run threw to september. I do agree, its a good year for swarms.

aaa,Todd64

[sqkcrk]

The statement has been made, what are your thoughts.

I never heard that statement before. I would say that the natural tendency of bees causes swarming. Swarming is what they do. Beekeepers do what they can to keep swarming to a minimum.

[Chick]

Bees swarm for all kinds of reasons. Not enough room, failing queen, parasites, but I have never heard of double deeps causing swarms. If anything, I would say that double deeps prevent swarming. At least they do not swarm for lack of room. Africanized bees live to swarm. Thats why they make poor honey producers. they may swarm up to 10 times a year. At least, that is what I read.

[BEES4U]

One of the advantages to fall re-queening is productive spring hives and reduced swarming.
Ernie

[D Coates]

Load of hookie. To make a blanket statement like that is simply ill-informed.

[AstroBee]

If anything, I hear the opposite. Often I hear that "single deeps will cause swarming," but in reality neither statement is true by itself.

[heaflaw]

IMHO, swarming is also caused by the location of honey vs open frames relative to the brood nest.

[Michael Palmer]

I would think the opposite, too. With a shallow-deep-shallow configuration, there isn't enough comb space for a prolific queen.

Here in the North, my queens have 9-12 frames of brood at Dandelion. In the s-d-s hive the bottom shallow has pollen, the top shallow has honey. The outside frames in the deep are honey, and the next comb in on each side has pollen...leaving 6 frames for the queen to lay in.

Not nearly enough in my opinion.

[alexlloyd]

Sounds right, I was in my hives Monday and the queen had 6 frames both faces FULL of brood in the upper box alone. 8 frames in the lower all had some brood.

I was afraid of swarming so I stuck a super on them but there is not much open yet, too wet this week and the dandelions have passed; If we get a warm day, we should get another round of them.

I could not find any swarm cells but that doesn't mean they won't, it just means they usually won't.