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How you manage swarm in comercial beekeping?

3K views 6 replies 7 participants last post by  zhiv9 
#1 ·
I whant to ask how you prevent swarm ? Im beekeper for 4 years now and every years I have big issue with this chapter. Most time I need to put few frames from brood box to top box otherwise will not move themself to top and Im wasting so much time checking everyhive for swarming :( . I check alot on internet and books but can find a proper way to block the swarm and also hive are not going to be enought bigger for making honey. So how is posible to manage this swarm section and what are best way to do that? Im feeling most time at this chapter failing :pinch: . Thank you
 
#2 ·
There are many ways to control swarming. So I'll tell you one way that will maybe work in a German environment because we used this method when I worked for a beekeeper in a part of my country with cold winters and one main honey flow.

The hives were wintered in two broodboxes. They would start to expand in spring but almost no nectar coming in yet. Just before the time for the bees to start swarming we would breed queen cells. Every day we would go out with a box of queen cells in the truck, and go through the hives and find the queen. She would go into the bottom brood box, and on top of that we would put a queen excluder and on top of that a honey super with empty combs. Then on top of that a split board and on top of that the other brood box with a queen cell in it. The split board had a small door for the bees so they could fly and the new queen could mate. The bottom box had the honey super to make room for bees incase too many drifted down from the top split.

The hive would not swarm because it had been split. 3 or 4 weeks later we re combined the two splits, with the old queen in the bottom box, on top of that a queen excluder, then the second brood box which now had a new queen in it, then another queen excluder, and on top of that the honey super. On top of the bottom queen excluder we put wooden chocks to lift the second box about 1/2 an inch for a second door as these 2 queen hives got very strong. It also let the drones out that were made in the second box.

This method stopped swarming because the hives were split just on swarming time. They didn't swarm after being re combined because that happened as the honey flow started, and in that area there was a cold winter, then later, one strong honey flow, so the bees lost their urge to swarm when the honey flow started.

It worked in that environment, it does not work where I am now because we have warm winters and long spread out flows, and the bees keep wanting to swarm right through a lot of the season and the honey flows, having 2 queen hives here actually makes it worse. But the method might work for you, depending your environment.

There's lots of other ways to control swarming also but I'll leave that for others to explain.
 
#3 ·
A big commercial operation will require more work put in for the bees business. Maybe
follow OT's method but use one queen instead. After the new queen is mated take out the
old one in a nuc hive for sale.
 
#5 ·
Hi Florin94
If you have Carnica bees, then this level of swarming is normal. Time for checking swarm preparations is always a lot. I think its between 6-8 weeks every 9 days or so. Thats life with Carnica here.

Solution try a new strain of Carnica or better even Buckfast Bees.
 
#7 ·
Figure out how many frames of brood you need say 6 weeks before the main flow so that the hives peak in population around the second week of the flow. Have them grow into the flow rather than peak right at the start. As Ian mentions it's critical the required resources are available or provided during this 6 week growth period.
 
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