swarming stimuli

[Jon]

Not wishing to burst anyones bubble but isnt all of this being viewed arse about face ? The raison d' etre of the colony is to swarm.

Not always. There are some which are happy to supersede after 2 or 3 years without ever making swarm preparations.

[GRIZZLY]

I agree with DR. bees will often swarm at the cessation of a nectar flow. The only swarm I had this year was a colony I had just fetched back home from the rape fields, They swarmed within 2 hours of being placed on their stand and before I had a chance of an examination.

[mbc]

Not always. There are some which are happy to supersede after 2 or 3 years without ever making swarm preparations.

I dispute the "without ever", those dice are loaded for doom.

I really enjoyed Willie Robsons description of "repletes" in his delightful little book, Reflections on beekeeping ( hardly a well written, flowing narrative, but full of experience and bee wisdom). The repletes are the same bees Rosie describes here "redundant and are a burden to the colony", I know which description helps my often constipated brain have a more positive flow of understanding.

[Rosie]

Thanks mbc. That's yet another book I haven't read so I just ordered it. While idly searching for reviews I came across this:

http://www.irishbeekeeping.ie/articles/wrobson1002.html

A lovely little talk by Willie.

[The Drone Ranger]

Thanks for that Rosie
very enjoyable read

[Blackcavebees]

Yes, I enjoyed Willie's insight, a good read

[Neils]

Neils, I would have said exactly the same as you up until about 18 months ago but then I don't think I fully understood WHY the queen needed laying space. I just knew they would swarm if she ran out of it.

Re-reading your original post, it's something I've read in a few places and not something that I necessarily have an argument against. In many respects space vs spread of bees goes hand in hand.

I still think that having bees building wax is generally a "good thing" when it comes to swarm prevention and I think it follows a similar logic. Lots of "bored" house bees with nothing to do possibly means that it is time to move on.

[busybeephilip]

My bees often supersede in the autumn and you sometimes find a box with two laying queens in the spring, later, the old Q usually becomes one of the "disappeared" never to be seen again.

Swarming is controlled by simply raising the brood over a queen2 board / sengrove or similar on first sign of larvae in cell cups. After the flying bees have rejoined the Q in the lower box the top box can be split for nucs or moved to a new stand if you want a stronger new colony. You can let them raise new queens from the existing swarm cells or introduce grafted queen cells or a new queen of known quality, its personal preferance and depends on your set up. This works for me and I don't loose a precious honey crop due to bees swarming