It's time to...
Reduce Swarming
and
Increase Honey Production
By Steven Page
© 2016-2023
If you want to increase honey production, continue reading.
Honey production requires swarm prevention.
More honey, more money, more success.
Every colony’s goal is to swarm prior to or at the beginning of the main nectar flow. If a colony swarms honey production will be significantly less compared to a colony that does not swarm. If your goal is to produce honey, then some swarm prevention method is required. An earlier It’s Time To... explained Nectar Management for swarm prevention and increased honey production. Swarming has nothing to do with congestion or crowding of the hive, it is procreation. Every colony's goal is to produce an offspring every year just before deciduous tree leaf-out.
Weak colonies or colonies that have not become established will not accomplish all the goals required to swarm.
When a colony produces a swarm, about 70% of the workers leave with the queen.
Swarm Prevention
If you were unable to use Nectar Management to prevent swarming there is another method to prevent swarming by making a split with the queen and two frames of brood. It is effective because the colony cannot swarm without a queen. You are making a swarm, but on your terms, the colony only loses a few workers not 70% of the workers in a swarm. Like Nectar Management, timing is important, too early and the new queen will not find sexually mature drones on her mating flights. Too late and the colony has already swarmed, or you will find swarm cells in the hive. Every strong colony can be expected to produce a swarm. Second-year colonies are notorious for swarming.
Making a Swarm Prevention Split
Equipment required for each hive.
- A five frame nuc hive with five frames and foundation.
- A feeder and syrup.
- Entrance Reducer
Timing
One week before swarm season starts is the best time to make this swarm prevention split. When does swarm season start? Check with other beekeepers in the area. Check with your county agricultural extension office. In Coweta County, Georgia, March 20 is the beginning of swarm season during an average year. This year's swarming started in the last week of February. Due to weather, the timing can vary by a few days or more than two weeks.
Make a Split
A strong colony is preparing to swarm. Find the queen. She could be anywhere in the hive, but most of the time she is in the brood area. If you don’t find the queen today, try again tomorrow. Find the queen. Finding the queen video. I use a different technique than the video to pick up the queen. I pick up the queen by the wing without touching her body.
Find the frames of uncapped brood. Leave one frame with young larvae in the hive. If you find two or three more frames of uncapped brood in the hive, move them to the nuc with the nurse bees. Use frames of capped brood if there are not enough uncapped brood frames. Move the queen to the nuc. If there are not many workers in the nuc, shake or brush bees from one or two brood frames into the nuc. The brood must be kept warm by the nurse bees. Add a frame of pollen and honey. Fill up the nuc hive with frames of foundation. Move the nuc to a permanent location and feed until the main nectar flow starts. Install an entrance reducer leaving only a ½ inch opening.
The nuc is set up with the queen, brood, honey, pollen, and a feeder. Return to the hive and give the colony a few areas to raise queens by notching.
Notch One Frame
The one frame of open brood left in the now queenless hive must contain young (less than 36-hour old) larvae. Notch 8 to 10 cells and return the frame to the middle of the brood frames. Add frames of foundation to fill up the brood super. Don't separate the brood with frames of foundation.
Notching
Notching removes the lower 1/3 of a cell to the foundation containing less than 36-hour-old worker larvae. Don't touch the larvae. The less than 36-hour-old larvae are not much larger than an egg and sit in a large pool of royal jelly. The comb is pressed into the foundation about an inch below the notched cell. This allows the workers to make a vertical queen cell.
My notching technique is to brush the bees off the frame. A few will remain. Walk away from the hive with the frame, and remove your veil (caution: a sting on the face is possible). Using reading glasses, find young larvae, cut into the lower 1/3 of the cells to the foundation with a razor blade, and bend or mash the comb flat against the foundation for about an inch below the notched cell.
The photos below will explain this better.
The red line is the cut line.
Large puddles of royal jelly.
A deep frame with notched cells. A dozen notched cells are plenty.
There are more on this frame for demonstration only.
Close the hive. Wait one week. Inspect for queen cells on the notched frame. There may be queen cells on other brood frames in the hive. Queen cells are very delicate; don’t thump or shock the frames with queen cells. After confirming queen cells, don’t inspect for four more weeks. Continue to add supers for honey production as needed.
After seven days, the colony made the queen cells on the bottom.
The upper queen cells were notched.
You may encounter a less-than-perfect hive.
You find swarm cells. They are early, or you are late. Find the queen and make a split with the queen and the frames of the uncapped brood. Many queen cells may get damaged because they hang below the bottom of frames. Make sure some are intact. Don’t thump, bump, or shake frames with queen cells; they are delicate.
Make more colonies if you need them. Leave two queen cells in the hive. Use other frames of queen cells to make splits.
The hive is weak. They will not swarm soon, but with help can build up and make honey. Augment the colony by adding a frame or two of capped brood from an overwintered nuc or a strong hive. Make sure the queen is not moved with the frames of brood.
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Coweta Sustainable Beekeeping notes
- Overwintered nucs should be moved to empty production hives, if available, so they have time to build up and make honey soon. If empty production hives are not available, nucs can be supered for honey, split for more colonies, combined with colonies without a queen or sold.
- Enhance production hives prior to the nectar flow. Adding a frame or two of capped brood from a nuc to augment a production hive that is weak or not building up will help the colony become strong and make honey soon. Always ensure the queen stays in the colony when moving capped brood to another hive.
- Do not remove brood from production hives prior to the main nectar flow because it will reduce honey production. The one exception to this rule is to when a swarm prevention split is made. This is explained in this It’s Time To...
- Add supers of empty drawn comb to hives as needed to stay ahead of the colony in hives that the nectar management manipulation was performed earlier.
- Inspect hives periodically.
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Swarm Logic
- Use techniques to prevent swarming.
- If a colony swarms and it is not dangerously high off the ground, catch the swarm.
- If a swarm is too high to safely catch or you don’t visit your hives every afternoon set up swarm traps to entice swarms to catch themselves. A swarm has moved into a swarm trap when workers are returning with pollen.
A swarm is not worth the risk of falling from a tree and getting injured or killed.
Free bees
A video of a swarm moving into a swarm trap.
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Weather for March 2023
After 12 weeks of warmer-than-average weather, we are now in cooler-than-average weather, which will continue into early April. The 12 weeks of nectar enabled most colonies to build up and are now issuing swarms. Despite my efforts (nectar management) to prevent swarming in early February, many of my colonies are preparing to swarm. I have found backfilling and swarm cells in some hives recently.
The main nectar flow will start in two weeks or less.
I caught this swarm on Saturday, March 11, 2023
Redbuds Started to bloom two weeks ago.
NOAA Climate Prediction Center outlook for March 25 - April 7
Slight chance of cooler than normal temperatures for north and central Georgia
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