Fleet Beekeepers Advanced beeginners week 2

Advanced Beeginners - Week 2

Swarm Management & Collection
Friday, 11 January 13

Agenda
Why Do Bees Swarm?
Swarm Management For the New
Beekeeper
Artiﬁcial Swarms
Collecting Swarms


Why Bees Swarm
Its a completely natural process and is how
colonies multiply.
Trigger points for swarming;
Colony starts running out of space in the hive -
Either brood space or storage
Hive is diseased or bees are starving (Rare)
They just want to....
But - unlikely to happen to Queens under two
years old in a healthy colony

There are various trigger points that cause a colony to swarm. Most of them are focused around the lack of space within the colony, but can also be driven by the age of
the Queen or the fact that they are just genetically more driven to swarm than another colony.

You should as a responsible beekeeper have a swarm policy in place for your colonies. Every beekeeper should prepare a bait hive in their apiary or nearby

Being a “natural” beekeeper is no excuse to simply let your hives swarm, unless you are prepared to collect them! Otherwise you are probably condemning the swarm to
death through starvation or exposure due to a lack of suitable places for them to re-locate.

How Swarming Happens
The colony raises several
Queen cells on brood frames
Egg placed in cell and sealed
on day 7/8
Colony will typically swarm
sometime after cells are
sealed
Queen stops laying and
workers consume large
amounts of honey in
preparation to leave

Every colony will develop “play cups” in spring from which one or two may develop into Queen cells. Knocking these down during an inspection may help, but it should
also serve as a warning to be vigilant for the signs of a real intention to create Queen cells. You should

The Swarm
On a warm afternoon with little
wind...
About half the workers bees and
old Queen leave hive very rapidly
Collect in a tight group around
Queen about 10-30M from hive
Dispatches scouts to look for a
new home
Colony may move on several times
as it looks for suitable site
Bees are very docile at this time
and are reluctant to sting


Meanwhile back at the hive...
60000

50000
Colony swarms
Full Colony
Foragers lost from
40000 Swarmed colony
parent colony
30000

20000

10000
Main nectar flow

0
ay

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r
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y

t
il

r
r

er
ry

us

be

be
be
r
ar

Ju
Ap

ob
ua

ar

M

Ju
nu

em
g

em
m
M

Au

ct
br

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Ja

v
O

c
Fe

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This shows the impact of swarming on the population of bees within an colony. Note how you have lost your main workforce just as the main nectar sources start to ﬂow
and therefore you will lose most of your potential crop that year. This chart also shows the importance of early swarms over later ones.

An early swarm gives the remaining bees in the colony time to raise a new laying Queen whilst there is still a crop to gather so that the hive has enough stores to get it
through the following winter.

A late swarm can put the whole colony in jeopardy in the fact that there may not be time to replace the lost workforce and stores before the onset of winter leaving a weak
colony that may not survive. You should consider merging late swarming hives before the autumn to create string colonies before the onset of winter.

Swarm Management


Choices, Choices...
There are three main options:
Try and prevent a swarm happening
in the first place
Create an artificial swarm under your
control
Let it happen by default or poor
observation

Its very difficult to prevent a swarm happening as it is a completely natural process and you are fighting against an organisms most basic instinct to reproduce. Get it
wrong and you could end up with no Queen and a colony falling into rapid decline...

Creating an artificial swarm is by far the best policy for most beekeepers as you can convince the colony that they have swarmed and keep your workforce in place to
maximise your honey crop. If you are a garden beekeeper, you also owe it to your neighbours not to disrupt their peaceful lives when a swarm descends into their garden
causing chaos until you come along and remove them.

If you are a “natural beekeeper” then you may choose not to intervene to prevent swarms, BUT it is still your responsibility to collect any of your swarms that emerge from
your colonies as otherwise its highly likely that the swarm will die if not collected by a beekeeper due to lack of suitable places to create a hive in the wild and their
potential inability to survive Varroa and other pests and diseases. You will also give all local beekeepers a bad name if you are responsible for swarms of bees plaguing
your neighbours!

Swarm Prevention?
Make sure you have young,
strong Queens
Inspect the brood frames
rigorously each week between
late April and end of July
Check the Queen is there and
laying eggs
Kill or remove any Queen
cups or cells
Hope you’ve been thorough
enough...

Almost all colonies with a Queen over two years WILL attempt to swarm in the spring/summer. You can try to prevent it, but in the end they will swarm...

Its also important to make sure that you have seen the Queen or eggs BEFORE you knock down all the Queen cells just in case they have already swarmed or the Queen has
died. Otherwise you will rapidly end up with a Queenless hive that will fall into rapid decline.

Think....
Is the hive actually preparing
to swarm?
Might the current Queen be
fading or dead?
Are there fresh eggs?
Is the Queen visible and
intact?
Consider this might be a
supercedure process and not
Swarming!

Supercedure cells like those shown above are relatively short and dumpy compared to normal Queen cells and the Queens they produce do not always able to ﬂy, mate and
return to lay successfully. In this case it is probably better to insert a decent Queen cell from elsewhere or add a frame of fresh eggs from which they can raise a good
quality Queen cell.

Clipping Queens
Hold Queen with crown
of thorns or use Queen
trap or fingers
Carefully clip 1/3rd off a
Queens wings
Swarm can’t fly far if
Queen can’t be there to
lead them
Keeps your neighbours
happy...

This is a simple process that needs a steady hand, a lot of patience and cool nerves.

The simplest method is to carefully trap the Queen and hold her against the comb using a crown of thorns. New Queens can be marked on the thorax only with this years
colour.

Carefully twist the crown and eventually the Queens wings will pop-up through the mesh. Very carefully cut the lower 1/2 off BOTH wings. A pair of curved nail scissors is
ideal.

Alternatively, you can very carefully grab the Queen between thumb and index finger and clip her with the scissors before returning her to the brood comb.

Don’t clip a leg or she will probably be rejected by the rest of the colony as “damaged goods”!

When a Clipped Queen Swarms
Swarm typically “falls” out
of the hive like this with
Queen on the ground
Swarm will later move back
in hive, possibly with Queen
or not...
Either way, the workforce
remains and you and your
neighbours are happy!
Don’t forget to clip the new
Queen once mated!

The Queen will sometimes attempt to fly out of the colony to lead the swarm and simply falls out of the front of the hive onto the ground beneath or sometimes walks
under the floor and stays there. Some retainers will stay with her, but most of the swarm will eventually return to the hive.

You can either retrieve the Queen and put her back in the original hive, or place her in a Nuc with some bees to look after her as an insurance policy in case the new Queen
in the old hive does not mate well or does not return from a mating flight.

Artiﬁcial Swarm - Choices
Do you want to keep the full workforce in place
to optimise your chances of a decent crop of
honey?
Have a disease/varroa issue and need to re-house

Creating an artiﬁcial swarm can be as simple as a complete comb swap, shaking the bees off their existing comb onto new foundation. This will mean the loss of your
existing brood, but the move onto foundation will stop any swarm process in its tracks as the bees focus on making wax and building new comb. Please make sure you feed
the colony syrup to assist them in this process.

Other techniques involve separating the Queen from most of the brood to break the swarm preparation cycle. This can lead into generating new Queen cells which are the
basis of a new colony if you wish to create one.

Artiﬁcial Swarm - Choices
Do you want to keep the full workforce in place
to optimise your chances of a decent crop of
honey?
Have a disease/varroa issue and need to re-house
Or
Do you want to create additional colonies to
increase your potential harvest next year?
You should have at least 2-3 colonies in an
apiary as an insurance against hard winters
or other problems
Creating an artiﬁcial swarm can be as simple as a complete comb swap, shaking the bees off their existing comb onto new foundation. This will mean the loss of your
existing brood, but the move onto foundation will stop any swarm process in its tracks as the bees focus on making wax and building new comb. Please make sure you feed
the colony syrup to assist them in this process.

Other techniques involve separating the Queen from most of the brood to break the swarm preparation cycle. This can lead into generating new Queen cells which are the
basis of a new colony if you wish to create one.

General Concepts
The process “fools” the bees into thinking they have
swarmed
Triggered when you either see Queen cells or other
circumstances decide such as disease or varroa
Many variations on a theme of moving bees between two
separate hives
We will show the Demaree method
Simple, effective, minimum of kit, no loss of workforce
More information and instructions to perform an artificial
swarm in this weeks handouts

As always in beekeeping, there are a huge number of ways in which you can create an artificial swarm and the books are full of different methods. We have selected one
process called Demaree, after George Demaree who wrote an article describing the process in the American Bee Journal in 1884.

The Demaree method of swarm control is the one of many techniques which we consider is probably the easiest to achieve, not having to find the Queen, and where there
are limitations of apiary space and equipment. Its essentially a process to separate the Queen from the brood whilst keeping both in the same overall space.

Demaree Process - Phase 1

Super

Brood Box
Queen



Brood Box
Queen



• Find and destroy
ALL Queen cells
Brood Box
Queen



ALL Queen cells
Brood Box • Find Queen and
Queen isolate her



Queen

ALL Queen cells
Brood Box • Find Queen and
isolate her



Queen

Brood Box



Queen

Brood Box New Brood
Chamber



Queen

Move frames with
brood into new
Brood Box brood chamber
New Brood
Chamber



Queen

Brood Box New Brood
Chamber



Queen

Fill space in
original brood box
Brood Box with spare combs
New Brood
Chamber



Place Queen
Brood Box back in Brood New Brood

Queen box Chamber



Old Queen,
new comb with
honey & pollen

Now that you have the hive set up, this is what happens:

• The nurse bees stay with the brood and care for it.
• The ﬁeld force continues to forage for honey and pollen.
• The queen continues to lay eggs and has lots of places to do so.
This situation is much like a hive that has already swarmed. The major difference is that both parts are in the same box. However,

• As soon as the queen scent decreases in the top box, the bees will try to raise a queen from young larvae.
• You may destroy these cells or remove them to a nuc.
• After the brood hatches, the brood cells will be backﬁlled with honey.
• In the end, the hive will not have swarmed, so it will contain lots of bees and lots of honey.
• The growing hive may once again develop the urge to swarm, which is why a second Demaree might be needed later in the season.


Queen Excluder

Old Queen,
new comb with
honey & pollen





Super
Queen Excluder

Old Queen,
new comb with
honey & pollen





Queen Excluder

Super
Queen Excluder

Old Queen,
new comb with
honey & pollen





Frames with
Brood

Queen Excluder

Super
Queen Excluder

Old Queen,
new comb with
honey & pollen




• Nurse Bees move
Frames with up to cover
Brood
emerging brood
Queen Excluder

Super
Queen Excluder

Old Queen,
new comb with
honey & pollen




• Nurse Bees move
Brood
emerging brood
Queen Excluder
• Queen has no
Super need to swarm
Queen Excluder

Old Queen,
new comb with
honey & pollen




• Nurse Bees move
Brood
emerging brood
Queen Excluder
• Queen has no
Super need to swarm
Queen Excluder
• Single hive can
Old Queen,
new comb with be re-united later
honey & pollen




Why Demaree?
Advantages
Uses minimum of new Frames with
Brood
equpiment
No need for extra space
Super
No loss of workers =
more honey Old Queen,
new comb with
Single hive is simple to honey & pollen
re-unite later

The essential feature of this method of swarm control is that the frames of young brood and eggs (without any bees) are moved to the top of the hive, above the honey
super while the queen and all the bees are left in the lower brood box with empty comb or foundation. The nurse bees migrate to the brood at the top and the older bees
stay with the queen below the queen excluder, as if they had swarmed.

Inspection of the top brood box seven to nine days later, will most likely reveal open queen cells in various stages. These can all be destroyed or perhaps more usefully
used : After selecting the best two, a screen ﬂoor or false ﬂoor may be inserted and the a new queen raised in the top box. This new queen, once established and laying
can be used replace the old queen or used to create another colony as desired.

Lets have a break...

Demaree - Variation

Frames with
Brood

Super

Old Queen,
new comb with
honey & pollen

If you do want to raise Queens, then you simply wait until the bees in the top brood chamber create a number of Queen cells and then insert either a Cloake board or
Snelgrove board that partitions off the top colony from the bottom one and creates an entrance for the emerging Virgin Queen and any drones to leave and return. Make
sure that the top and bottom entrances face in different directions.

More info on making a Cloake board: http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/cloake.html

Purchasing the second entrance for a Modern Beekeeping Poly Hive here: http://www.modernbeekeeping.co.uk/products/langstroth-hive-components/queen-trap-
swarm-prevention

Make sure you combine it with one of their inner hive covers here: http://www.modernbeekeeping.co.uk/item/50/inner-hive-cover to completely seal the top hive from the
bottom one.

Demaree - Variation

Frames with
Brood

Super

Old Queen,
new comb with
honey & pollen Set main entrance
at 180 degrees



swarm-prevention

bottom one.

Demaree - Variation

Frames with
Brood
Snelgrove etc board
with 2nd entrance
Super

Old Queen,
new comb with
honey & pollen



swarm-prevention

bottom one.

Demaree - Variation

Frames with • Creates two hives
Brood
in one site

Super

Old Queen,
new comb with
honey & pollen



swarm-prevention

bottom one.

Demaree - Variation

Brood
in one site
• Foragers come
Super back and ﬁll top
brood box
Old Queen,
new comb with
honey & pollen



swarm-prevention

bottom one.

Demaree - Variation

Brood
in one site
• Foragers come
Super back and ﬁll top
brood box
Old Queen,
new comb with
• Will raise Queen
honey & pollen cells from eggs



swarm-prevention

bottom one.

Bait Hives
Every Beekeeper
should have a bait hive
Located in or near the
main apiary
A nuc with comb works
ﬁne
Or use Vita Swarm
Attractant Wipes with
foundation

These can be bought, but its just as easy to use a Nuc box containing unused comb or build a simple box capable of taking your standard brood frames and place some
spare comb inside to act as bait. Lemon grass oil is also an excellent attractant - put a few drops on a kitchen towel inside a half sealed zip-loc bag and place inside the
bait hive and smear a couple of drops around the entrance of the hive.

Great video on building and installing bait boxes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=na3owKhF9m4

More details on swarm attractant here: http://www.vita-europe.com/products/honeybee-swarm-attractant-wipe/

Collecting Swarms

This is one of my Queens bought earlier that year from Slovakia in the process of swarming out of the hive in the background. Here she is surrounded by a small entourage
as the rest of the bees start to ﬂy out of the hive to join her.

Collecting Swarms
You will need;
Full bee suit, gloves
A cardbox box with tape,
an empty hive, swarm
box or skep
A white sheet
Secateurs and/or garden
saw
A smoker, hive tool water
spray and bee brush can
be useful

Collecting swarms is relatively easy as long as you can get access to them. Most swarms tend to land on trees or hedges at about head height, but we have seen them land
on everything from cars, to motorcycles to even aircraft wings!

Always wear a full bee suit and boots as quite often you will be kneeling down and can crush bees that will sting you. A gentle water spray works better than smoke on
most solid swarms and calms the bees down and a brush is essential to sweep some swarms into a box.

On site
Are they actually honey bees?
If so, is the swarm stable and
collected in one place?
Can you reach the swarm
safely?
Clear the public from the
area
Lay out your sheet and hive
box etc underneath the
swarm or nearby

Make sure you can get access to the swarm without putting yourself and others in harms way. Call for another beekeeper if you need someone to hold a ladder or help
with positioning the collection box or skep. Make sure the public stay away in case the swarm decide to leave before you can collect them or if something goes wrong and
they don’t end up in your collection box ﬁrst time. The white sheet helps by containing any bees that fall outside the box and you can wrap the box or skep in the sheet to
prevent any escapees...

The Easy Way to Collect a Swarm

Most swarms are usually relatively easy to access and collect. The trick is to either position a box underneath and shake them in one sharp go, or put an upturned box
above them that they can move into (remember bees invariably crawl up not down). The key is to get the Queen into your container, once she is there, the rest of the
swarm will follow. Seal up the main lid of the box leaving a small entrance for the other ﬂying bees to join the swarm inside. Look for the classic “bum up” posture of
workers fanning pheromone from their Nazimov glands to tell the other ﬂying bees “home is here”.

Housing Them...

This is a magical process where the white sheet is used to create a pathway into the hive or nuc box. Make sure that the path is unimpeded and they will simply walk up
the ramp and into the hive over the course of about 10 minutes. If you are lucky, you will see the Queen in amongst her retinue and once most are inside, some workers
will show the classic “bum up” position fanning pheromone to let the ﬂyers know where the Queen is and to join them.

Once Re-Housed
Consider putting bees in a hive or
Nuc box outside your apiary
Don’t bring in diseases that
might affect your other bees
Put them onto clean frames with
foundation
Leave bees alone in hive or Nuc box
for about 24 hours
Provide a good feed of syrup to
encourage rapid cell building so
Queen can start laying
Consider replacing Queen before
the onset of Winter...

Once you get the bees inside the Nuc box make sure that you seal the entrance for 24-48 hours so that the bees get a strong imprint of the hive and don’t ﬂy off to swarm
elsewhere! This will also make them “reset” their internal navigation systems so that they re-orientate their new location.

You would normally need to feed the new colony with sugar syrup so that they can get to work building new comb as fast as possible. Once they start this process, its a
very good idea to treat the bees with Oxalic acid mixture before the Queen starts to lay so that you knock down as many mites as possible.

You should also consider re-Queening the colony before winter to ensure the colonies survival into the next spring with a strong, healthy Queen of known vintage.

Meanwhile in the Old Hive...

Here the newly emerged virgin Queen is “piping” as a challenge to any other Queens in the hive.

Remarkably, any Queens in the hive, even those still inside their cells will pipe back and battle will commence with the Queens using their specialised stings on each other
until only a single Queen is left alive.

Summary
Understanding the natural cycles
in the beekeeping year is key
All hives will swarm eventually
Taking positive action is key to
ensure that you either
Encourage honey production
Raise a new colony
Learn to read comb so that you
can spot Queen cells early on
Accompany someone more
experienced to collect your ﬁrst
swarm


Fleet Beekeepers Advanced beeginners week 2

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