[chrissv]

I have a (green) hive which wants to swarm. They have been building swarm cells, but the current queen continues to lay eggs very well.

Next to it is another (brown) hive which has struggled earlier this year with being queenless, and not raising a new queen. Bought a queen for this hive a month ago and she is laying, but the population is down.

I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. I'll take some frames of bees+brood from the green hive to the brown hive. Hopefully this will strengthen the brown hive and remove some pressure from the green hive.

Do you think this will help the green hive and relieve the swarm instinct?

-- Steven

 

[rkr]

Do you think this will help the green hive and relieve the swarm instinct?
-- Steven

I had a hive that I split when they had a few swarm cells, the split with the original queen still built more swarm cells. I knocked them down a few times and then decided to split them into a nuc with the old queen and a few frames of bees. Guess what? They still built more swarm cells.

By cutting them down to a nuc with the old queen I feel like I did create a situation where I limited the number of bees and the amount of honey I would loose.

When the swarm cells in my nuc were close to being ready I removed the old queen and used her to build up a hive that a friend was having trouble with supercedure and weird looking, mutant, hairy, tiny, bees (they were creepy looking), she did a bang-up job and was superseded 4 weeks later; her daughter is doing an outstanding job for him now.

When they get into swarm mode simply removing some brood frames may not, and probably will not reduce the "swarm fever" in the hive. I think it will help the Brown hive and moving some frames will not hurt if the Green hive is booming. You might consider doing a newspaper combine vs just slapping them in there. Less chance they will go on a rampage and kill your new queen.

I have limited experience but there is my 2 cents.

RKR

 

[Rick 1456]

I have read and experienced: When a hive goes into swarm mode,,,it is extremely difficult to get that outa their heads. There are some techniques to induce a fake swarm. Never tried anything like it so do some research. Set up some swarm catchers boxes just in case and hope for the best. I will defer to more experienced than I.
Rick somd

 

[Omie]

Chrissv, read this thread:
http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=244359

Yes you can help the weak hive by giving it a couple of frames from the strong hive.
If the strong hive is already preparing to swarm, I hear that there is little you can do to stop it. But you could try to catch the swarm, and you can also read up on how to help discourage swarms next year (if indeed you want to discourage them, not everyone does).
Good luck!

 

[Adrian Quiney WI]

Steven, are they building swarm cells (with larva in them) or queen cups (like acorn shells) that have no larva in them?
If they are queen cups don't worry, just keep an eye on them. If they are swarm cells with larva you can prevent a swarm leaving - check out michael Bush's website for tips.
Adrian.

 

[chrissv]

Steven, are they building swarm cells (with larva in them) or queen cups (like acorn shells) that have no larva in them?

Definitely swarm cells. I pulled off a couple of frames w/ swarm cells back in may and made a couple of nice nucs. I can't do that this time (no room or nuc boxes).

-- Steven