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Urban Swarming and Swarm Control

Paul LongwellOlympia Beekeepers

May 2015

Why Control Swarming?

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Keep backyard beekeeping socially acceptable

Honey for the bees and the beekeeper

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In my opinion, bait hives should be a part of a modern up-to-date apiary during swarm season. In particular, suburban and urban beekeepers should use bait hives near their apiaries to help keep their swarms from causing problems.

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When Bees Swarm

• Humans marry and have children• Children leave the home to get married• Bees are different• The old mother leaves with some daughters• This is called a SWARM• They set out to build a new colony• The old nest is left intact for the new Queen

Interesting Swarm Facts• Most found swarms are within 170 feet of the original hive

• 80% of swarms perish

• Typically a swarm occurs between 10 am and 2 pm

• In many countries allowing hives to swarm is considered poor beekeeping etiquette.

• In the United States catching swarms can be treated by some like a free sample day at Costco.

• Swarms in urban areas are more likely to be within one or two generations of the commercial bee strains and not feral bees.

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Known Hives around Me

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Types of Swarms• Absconding Swarms

– The whole colony departs • Lack of resources, unacceptable accommodations,

parasites…

• Reproductive Swarms– Natures way of prospering– Not enough room

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Conditions that Promote Swarming• Decrease queen pheromone

– Last years queen• Congestion

– Lack of open cells in the brood nest for the queen to lay eggs

– Crowding – bees, nectar, and pollen• Environmental conditions

– Resources -Abundance of nectar and pollen– Weather - Sunny, warm, calm

• Genetic strain

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Timing Swarm Season• Drone brood rearing begins 4-6 weeks prior to swarming

• 4 weeks after dandelion bloom starts (This year dandelion bloom started mid January)

• Apple blossom peak

• The warm calm day after the bees have been cooped up due to inclement weather

• Swarming usually coincides with relatively good foraging periods and tends to occur from March to June, with a peak in early April

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Hive Yearly Population Growth

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Impact of Swarming

Swarming is Eminent • If you see capped queen cells the colony has most

likely swarmed. • If there are queen cells and no eggs the colony has

likely swarmed.

• Cutting out queen cells • If you destroy all the queen cells you may end up with

no queen. • Does not prevent swarming• Is labor intensive • Your colony may need one of those queens • DOES prevent secondary swarms

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Successful Swarm Preventionstarts before you see queen cells

• Provide room for the queen to lay within the brood nest

• Provide room for pollen and nectar

• Provide the equivalent of 2 deeps for brood

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Swarm Prevention Methods (queen staying with brood)

• Caging the queen - breaks the brood cycle• Add drawn comb in the brood area (Checker

Boarding)

• Reversing brood boxes– Do keep brood together with room to move up– Don’t if it splits the brood

• Move frames of brood and nurse bees to a weaker colony replace with empty drawn comb

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Checker Boarding

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Labor intensive and need extra frames of empty drawn comb. Start 2 months prior and repeat until end of the swarm seasonUseful technique for Top Bar Hive

Reversing Brood Boxes

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YES

NO

After using the preceding techniques to build a strong colony, Preempt the Swarm

• Separate the brood from the queen. • A "true" swarm has an old queen, 20,000 or

so workforce of bees of all ages, and no comb.

• An artificial swarm is typically the foragers, the old queen, and empty comb.

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Swarm Prevention Methods (separate queen from brood)

•Splits or nucs (see resources)

•Demaree - preceded Snelgrove• Set up is same as Snelgrove without SB• Queen cells are removed, • Every 7 days brood frames are moved up to top box and additional Queen cells

are removed (see resources)

•Double Screen aka Snelgrove Board (SB)• Provides the queen with extra laying space• Maintains all the bees at full strength in the hive,• Ultimately reunite as one colony with a new queen• Do not have to manipulate the hive after Day 1

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Double Screen Board aka Snelgrove Board

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The bees’ scent and heat pass through the entire hive via a patch of mesh in the center of the Snelgrove board, however the queen pheromones do not.

Snelgrove Board

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3 (4) pairs of entrances

Each pair has an entrance above and below the board

Basic Swarm Prevention Split• On the original hive location

– 1 frame - the old queen with brood, honey, and pollen (no queen cells)

– Drawn comb or foundation

• Move the parent hive to a new location– Brood, honey and pollen– Wait 1-3 days then introduce fertile queen– If they have to make their own queen you will loose 2-3

weeks of brood production

• May need to rebalance the number of foragers or brood in the hives

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Taranov

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4 inches

honeybeesuite.com

Taranov Board• Bearing the name of it's Russian inventor, this device allows a shook swarm to be made, with

the queen, which can then be hived in the same apiary. Bees will not return to the original site, but will behave like a natural swarm.

• It consists of a sloping board, about 16” wide, which is arranged to slope up from the ground, to a point approximately level with the hive entrance and about 4” away from it.

• A sheet is laid on the board, to increase the area, a little back from

• the top edge and the bees are shaken from the frames onto the board.

• The bees should be brushed from any frame with a queen cell you wish to keep. Most of the older bees, cross the gap back into the hive. Mostly younger bees, with the queen, form a cluster below the top edge of the board. It helps if a piece of Hessian, or burlap, is fixed to this part to give the bees some grip.

• When the cluster is well formed, which takes 60 - 90 minutes, The board can be carried away and the swarm hived elsewhere in the apiary.

• A drawback to this operation, is that the hive needs to be on a stand of some sort. If your hive is low to the ground, it will need blocking up 10“ or more.

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Swarm Bandit

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Have spare equipment availablewhich is clean and serviceable

Check your hives every 7 to 9 days

Act as soon as queen cells are seen with eggs as otherwise the honey crop will be lost.

Be Prepared

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Remember•Swarms are natural but they should not happen so pre-empt them•Swarms are bad publicity - public panic and local authorities could ban bees•Swarms for increase – this was the ancient skep tradition•Increase by crude splits if no other skills or time (for queens over 3 years of age)•Spare equipment – you need spare hive’s or nuc’s•Avoid using prolific bees (eg Italians) in a small size hive (top-Bar Golden Mean style)

Bees do what Bees do

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Swarm in a Tree

Swarm Trap

Swarm being hived

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Here’s what’s in my swarm kitCopy paper boxDuck tapeWhite sheet#8 hardware clothQueen catcherSling Shot30 lb fishing line with 3oz weightExpandable pole with bucketPrunersLemon grass or Swarm CommanderBait hive with old brood combCollapsible ladderBee suit

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Use of Sling Shot for swarm removal

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Contact Gayle if you are a Swarm gatherer!

• Swarm Hot Line

• 360-515-1068

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References

• Walt Wright http://www.knology.net/~k4vb/all%20walt%20articles.htm

• Michael Bush http://www.bushfarms.com

• Honeybee suite http://www.honeybeesuite.com

• Beesource http://www.beesource.com

• David Cushman http://www.davecushman.net

• Beeworks http://www.beeworks.com

• Pnwhoneybeesurvey http://www.pnwhoneybeesurvey.com

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