If you want to catch swarms, queen, requeen your hives or split your hives -- this slide show will show you how to collect swarms, split hives

1. Week 4
Queens, Hive Splitting and
Swarms
Dara K. Dimitrov
dkd4@waikato.ac.nz

2. Swarms
 Can be an easy way to increase the number of hives you
have
 It is the natural way that bees replicate themselves
 It usually occurs in early spring to mid summer
 Happens in large active healthily hives (so if the hive is
weak – it won’t swarm)
 If you live in the city – swarming of your bees is a public
nuisance

4. Types of Swarms
 Primary Swarms
 1st Swarm of the season
 Contains a Queen and can have up to 25,000 bees
 Sometimes this maybe the only swarm from a hive
 Sometimes maybe the original queen (she ceases laying
eggs, so abdomen reduces and allows her to fly)

7. Types of Swarms
 Secondary Swarms (sometimes called after-swarms)
 Happen after the primary swarms (maybe only be a couple
a weeks after the primary one sometimes)
 Usually a virgin queen

9. Types of Swarms
 Absconding Swarms
 The whole hive leaves the box
 They are starving
 There is disease present
 Insects are attacking the hive (hive month or ants)
This is rare – but it does happen
More common – the hive will die out before vacating the hive

10. Catching the Swarm
 You need to consider 3 main points
 How long the bees have been sitting there
 Where exactly the swarm is located
 The size of the swarm

11. Catching the Swarm
 If the bees have not settled properly
 They will not go into your box easily
 They will probably move on very quickly
 If the bees have been there a couple of days
 They will move on very quickly to their new home
 The Scout bees will have located a new hive spot
 Even if you manage to catch them – they may leave

12. Location of the Swarm
 If the bees settle in a very high tree or some other
difficult spot – it will be very difficult to catch them
 Your success rate is very low
 Accessibility – can you reach them
 Do you need a ladder?
 How high????
 If the bees are in someone’s house wall, roof, inside part of
a building structure (which requires removal of the part of
the structure ----------CALL PEST CONTROL!
You must consider the safety aspect – and use
caution when grabbing the swarm

13. Size of the Swarm
 If it is a primary swarm –
 You may need a full size box
 10 frames
 If it is a secondary swarm
 Use a nuc box
 5 frames

14. Catching the Swarm
1. Suit up
2. Make sure you have all your wood ware ready
- put a couple of drawn frames in the hive box
- the bees have gorged on honey – so they don’t need
any honey frames
- Swarms are often used to repair damaged frames and
draw foundation

15. Catching the Swarm
 The bees will be clustering around the queen
 Shake the bees into a bucket
 If possible – put the hive box underneath the swarm
 Try disturb the bees as little as possible
 You might have to shake the bees off several times
before they will stay in the box
 You can tell that you have caught the queen because the
worker bees will ‘fan’

16. Fanning Worker Bees

17. Catching the Swarm
 Leave the lid off the swarm for the first 15-20 mins
 Then when the bees start fanning and the majority of
the bees are in the hive box
 Put the lid on BUT leave a gap for the bees to enter and
exit from
 The bees will use the regular entrance as well as the gap
on the top
 Leave the box on location until evening so that you
catch the entire hive before removing it

18. Emergency
 You can put them into a cardboard box – use one that
closes
 You can use a bucket with a lid – slip the bucket under
the swarm and put the lid on the bucket (snip the
branch)
 Try to not to disturb the cluster – just quietly place the
box/bucket under the swarm – and shut it quickly
 You won’t get all the bees – but most of them & the
queen

20. Final thoughts on Swarms
 You can use Bait hives to catch swarms when you are
not around – (nuc box with some drawn frames)
 If the swarm is a secondary – you are better off
jamming it on top of a weaker hive
 Greater number of bees === stronger hive, better cluster
 Disease can be transferred with Swarms
 If it is not your own hive swarm ----Play it safe and leave
the swarms separate from your own hives
 Keep an eye on the brood for signs of disease

22. Splitting Hives
 If you want to increase the number of producing hives
for either the current year or the following year
 It discourages swarming
 You can generate an income from the sale of nucs

23. Hive Splits and Time of the Year
 If you get the timing wrong – it will be a waste of time,
money and bees
 Generally mid spring (when numbers in the hives begin
to increase) and before the honey flow peaks
 There has to be adequate food in both splits for the both
hives to thrive (so you may have to feed them too)
 The general rule – the earlier and the stronger each split
is – the more successful you will be

24. How to Split them
 Split a double brood hive in half
 Leave the queen in one box
 Put a queen cell/mated queen in the other box
 Make sure there is brood in both hives
 Select brood and feed from a hive – and make up nucs
 Minimum number of frames is 3 for a nuc
 REMEMBER clustering and temperatures so 5 frames is best
 You need a queen cell/mated queen for the nuc

25. Splitting side by side

26. Side by Side Hive Splits
 Double Brood Boxes
 Put 2 hive floors together – in front of the old hive
 Put one box on each of the hive floors
 Check to see which box has the queen
 Re-queen the other box – mated queen/queen cell

27. Walk Away Splits
 Split the hive in half (brood frames and honey)
 Leave them alone
 The Queen-less hive will raise a queen (16 days to
hatching – another week for her to mate)
 Compare this to a mated queen – about 5 days to get
out of the cage – another 5 days to get laying well
 Ripe queen cell – is about 11 days from hatching to
mating and laying

28. Hive Splitting
 If you do it in the spring – 21 days for the hive to get
going if you leave it queenless
 If you use a mature queen cell – 11 days for the hive to
get going
 If you use a mated queen – it will take about 10 days
(maximum) to get going

29. Queens
 Mature queen cells – ready to hatch in a couple of days
usually

30. Queens
Buy Mated queens – come in a cage, with other
bees
- They have a sugar ‘end’ – you MUST remove the
plastic cap so that the bees can eat through the
sugar end to release the queen -- takes about 45 days
Unmated Queen emerging

31. Queen in cage with other bees

32. Questions????