Hive Builder Bee Swarm Download

I travel a lot and made several hundred presentations on four continents. I give talks and workshops on natural beekeeping, woodworking (hands-on horizontal hive and swarm trap construction), organic gardening, and Earth-friendly living. Some of the places I presented at:

It has the additional significant advantages of keeping the entire foraging force of the colony together (even better for honey production than not losing a swarm) and needing no specialised equipment.

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If you have a reasonable understanding of the development cycle of queen and worker bees you will understand how the Demaree Method simultaneously prevents swarming and keeps the entire colony together.

Hi David. Thanks for that very clear description. I will now preposition the correct equipment at my stronger hives and try not to be taken by surprise like every other year !! Can you say why the second excluder is needed (point 8) ?

Thanks

Karl

I am half way through a demaree swarm control.

The bees are replacing the brood cells with stores. How can I get the bees to take these stores back down into the hive after the 25 day process? Seems a lot of stores/hard work by the bees for these stores to go to waste.

Hi David, I have used this method this year with some success (a few hives continued to make queen cells in the bottom box and a couple still swarmed). I also used it to grow a new queen in the top box to eventually replace older queens in the bottom box. At what point would you kill the old queen and when you do is it ok just to move the new queen down into the bottom box (or run as double brood for a time) or are the bees in the bottom box likely to kill her?

I will read your suggestions. I am based in melbourne, australia and working with a 8 frame full depth brood box, queen excluder then ideal super (this stays for overwintering) , then flow super. Looking to start a second hive without buying a new nuc. So looking at different methods that hopefully allows me to do this but not affect the honey production too much if possible. Then once i have 2 hives established (that is the max I can have in my backyard), then will look to create a couple of nucs to sell each season or just maintain existing.

I have been looking to do a preemptive swarm control and keep bees together so chose the Demaree so thank you for this information. I missed the need for 2 QE when I added the second brood box, so now have new brood box with empty comb and the queen, QE, 2 supers and old brood. I see the 2 QE is the standard instruction across every page on it I find, including the legendary Dave Cushman.

I am skeptical (especially in spring) that cells on the face of the comb as opposed to the bottom of the comb indicate a peaceful supercedure is in progress. It is far safer to assume what is usually the case, that an uncapped queen cell indicates an imminent swarm. You risk nothing by applying your preferred method of swarm control/management, as you can recombine or juggled brood frames post management to conserve foragers to hives meant to be honey hives.

Hi,

If I leave a queen cell in the upper box with the intention of replacing the old queen subsequently, will this lead to swarming of the colony? If so, should I separate the upper box with a solid board instead of a queen excluder?

Hello David,

Thanks for your answer!

Well, like you said, an entrance for the top box should be provided so that the new queen could fly and mate. But my worry is about the potential risk of swarming if I separate the top box only by a queen excluder. Have you tried this option?

I have a question more about vertical splits than Demaree (where you would remove all the queen cells in the top box.) I used this successfully last year, although it was quite heavy lifting for a short person like me!

With a vertical splits you are very confident that multiple virgin queen cells in the bottom box will not result in swarming but leave only one queen. Can you explain why this is!

Also that any queen cells in the top box will be torn down?

I want to try this this year but am nervous about not inspecting/removing surplus queen cells!

Set up the swarm box as follows: Find a frame of very young brood, and a frame full of pollen; put these in the center of the swarm box, pollen and young brood facing inward toward each other. Put a frame of drawn comb on either side of the center frames. At this point, the Cell Starter box contains 4 frames in this order: drawn comb, pollen, young brood, drawn comb.

By this time, the swarm box has settled down, and the field bees have flown home, the young bees remaining have realized that they are queenless, have oriented to the frame of young larvae, have eaten their fill of nectar and pollen, and are producing royal jelly like mad. They are ready to produce queen cells!

Lift the lid a little (no smoke) to confirm that the frames are covered with bees, and clusters of bees are hanging from the cover to either side of the combs. If not, add more young bees (from either the 5 frames in the box below, or shaken from brood frames of another hive).

Only reuse cell builders that did a good job of rearing cells the first time! Keep it from swarming by inspecting the lower brood chamber below the excluder every 10 days. Shake all bees off brood combs, and cut out swarm cells.

Maybe build a type of A-frame (or triangle trestle frame) to fit the roof angle with scrap wood and rest the swarm capture box on that. However, if they have built comb under the tiles, it is going to be a heck of a job to persuade them to leave!

I had one just like yours, only iron roof, I put a box on the roof just above them, entrance facing down. Some moved in, but most stayed in the gutter. I found that the queen had already moved into eaves along with some very good comb builders, so they were never going to move in the box. I had to lift a sheet of iron and use my bee vacuum to get them all out. Very tight squeeze.

Yeah wow, I caught a tricky swarm inside a hedge that I didnt want to cut - through putting a small cardboard box on the hedge, then gently taking a few scoops of bees and putting them in the box. While they crawled down to the main swarm, I started to puff smoke under the main swarm mass and it slowly headed up and into the cardboard box, I even watched the queen heading in with some of the last few bees. I then took that box and moved it to flat ground, leaving the smoker at the original area of the swarm. Then shook the cardboard box into the brood box, All up it was a long swarm catch though. They are well establish colony now.

Modern beekeeping practices are adjusted to match the seasonal colony lifecycle by increasing honey production, limiting seasonal behavior (swarming), or managing parasites that also follow seasonal patterns.

As freezing temperatures become less frequent, more flowers bloom, and honey bees begin foraging more intensively. The many flowering trees in the spring provide substantial amounts of nectar and pollen, which drives a rapid increase in brood rearing and colony population. This rapid increase leads to swarming behavior (see below) later in spring.

Establishing new colonies is most often done in the spring. Many beekeepers purchase packages, which are screened boxes filled with approximately 10,000 workers and a queen. The package is opened, and the bees are poured into an empty hive and fed copiously until they are established, just in time to take advantage of the nectar flows that occur in May and June in Pennsylvania. Beekeepers must be diligent in feeding packaged bees, as the colony lacks honey, pollen, and comb from which to grow and expand. The advantages of packages are that they have a lower incidence of disease and parasites because the bees arrive without brood or comb. One disadvantage of packages is that they often are mass-produced by the thousands, and this can lead to reduced quality of the queens, which reduces colony vigor.

Another way a beekeeper can obtain a new colony is by catching a swarm locally. Swarms are very docile and, if the swarm is within reach, the beekeeper can shake the swarm into a cardboard box and bring it to their apiary and install it in a hive. If the swarm is not installed into a hive with comb and pollen/honey resources, it is a good idea to provide them with supplemental syrup. While swarms are free, they are usually only available later in the spring.

The increased population in the colony triggers the rearing of new queens and drones (males). New queen rearing is initiated when levels of queen pheromone are reduced in the hive. In a larger, more congested colony, there is less spread of queen pheromone throughout the brood nest. The nurse bees will typically rear new queens on the edges of the frames, where queen pheromone levels are lower. Often, nurse bees will rear a large number of queen cells, and this is the first visual cue to the beekeeper that swarming is imminent.

Swarming is problematic for beekeepers because the colony size is reduced dramatically (by one-half or more). Furthermore, the old queen leaves with the swarm, leaving the remaining colony temporarily queenless while a new queen is established. The new queen must complete pupal development, emerge as an adult, mature, mate, and begin laying eggs. This results in a multi-week break in brood production, which further reduces the colony population and productivity. Swarming colonies may also be alarming to neighbors, who may be concerned when swarms appear in their backyard.

Beekeepers must check their colonies regularly to make sure the brood chamber and honey supers are not full, and that queen rearing has not been initiated. Since it takes only ~16 days from egg to adult queen, beekeepers typically check their colonies at least every two weeks to monitor for swarm prevention. Beekeepers can add more brood frames or honey supers to reduce colony congestion and delay swarming. Another option to delay swarming is to remove and destroy developing queen cells. While this option can be effective, it is time-consuming and prone to error. Vigorous, overwintered colonies will almost assuredly attempt to swarm; even colonies started earlier in the spring from nucs and packages may swarm if resources are sufficiently abundant. 17dc91bb1f