Swarm Control – The Rhythm Method!

Swarm Control – The Rhythm Method!

Kind of.

This is not a method of contraception.  Do not practice this at home!

Over the last few weeks, I have been practicing what I am calling the Rhythm Method of swarm control. It’s a bit risky and probably a lot less than 80% effective, but due to the urgency of the situation (so to speak), a feeling of wanton abandon and perhaps a lack of responsibility (?) this is what I have been doing (i.e. not doing anything) for the last few weeks.

Calendar-Based Method Of Swarm Control

I’m calling this the Rhythm Method as it is a calendar-based method to estimate when the swarmy season is upon us (mid-April to mid-July in UK, mainly) and due to the lack of other swarm prevention / management techniques.

Basically, I have been working at home 2-3 days/week and not getting away at weekends.  I’m around.  At about 12 noon on warm, sunny days (there have been about 5 in the last month) I see if any bees are checking out my swarm traps with pheromone lure and go to look at the hives.

Bees Do It

So I’m not trying to prevent a swarm, much of the literature says it is pretty much inevitable anyway.  What I am trying to do is allow my bees to do what comes naturally and swarm and to catch the swarm.  The benefits are: (A) letting the bees do what is natural, (B) a brood break for both swarm and the colony that is left behind, which is good for reducing varroa; (C) the pure joy of catching a swarm (good for the beekeeper); (D) a new colony and (E) less time spent on swarm prevention.

Well on Friday (27 May) I went down the allotment and was greated by the roaring of swarming bees.  The swarm had not landed and filled the air in a hemisphere that stretched to 20 metres from the hive.  A beautiful site.

Time to lie on the grass and let the bees do their thing around me.  Unfortunately, there was no one to photograph this wonderful site and … it didn’t happen as I had a load of jobs to do.

Time For A Cup Of Tea

Actually, coffee and filling the dishwasher.  But tea sounded better for a British beekeeper and this blog.

Being a bit more experienced in beekeeping these days, I went home and returned an hour later to find they had landed on the side of the hive from which I guessed they had swarmed.  They were right over the entrance.  This confused me.  Was this some sort of secondary swarm, or a swarm that had only partially committed to swarming?  Had the prime swarm gone?  It didn’t look very big in any case.  Eek.

Swarm In Awkward Position

This queen was not clipped but for some reason the swarm decided to return to and cling to the side of the hive from which they had came.  See below.

First Swarm 2016 - From Near Hive
First Swarm 2016 – From Near Hive

Confused Beekeeper

I still consider myself pretty much a novice. I observed.  I spoke aloud, to no one but myself.  I paced. What to do?  (My reaction as I’m action-orientated). What was going on?  (Hhmmm … time to reflect).

I can tell I am no longer a novice, as I did not panic and try and call Brian!

I scooped bees and tried to find a queen in the swarm, which I expected/hoped would have a blue dot on her back.  No luck. Was this a second swarm with a virgin and hence unmarked queen?  No idea.

Part 1 – Time For Action

I moved the whole of the hive to the far corner of the allotment.  You can see it with the green Bee Cosy in the photo below. By the way 14×12’s are heavy!  Then picked up the hive floor and stand and chucked the swarm into a nuc which contained drawn frames. I got less than 40% of swarm into the nuc but the rest immediately started going in.  That was a good sign.

Rationale of my manoeuvre:

  1. Hope the queen is in the swarm
  2. Let’s make a kind of artificial/natural swarm in the nuc
  3. The swarm and flying bees should go into the nuc – which they did
  4. Original hive, had queen cells and hopefully no queen, hence should continue normally and any flying bees might head to the nuc which is fine.  (I culled some of the queen cells.)
Swarm Caught In Nuc
Swarm Caught In Nuc

Part 2 – Checking The Nuc

Two days later I checked the nuc and it had the queen with the blue dot.  She had not started laying but the bees had started bring in lots of nectar and pollen.  I gave them a proper hive.

So my swarm management method has been 100% effective so far.  This percentage can only drop.

“A Swarm In May Is Worth A Bale Of Hay”

That’s what they say but what does it mean? (Any comments on this gratefully received).  Does that mean they’ll produce honey this year?  Any bee eggs are not going to mature for 21 days.  Many bees in the swarm will have died by then (bees live about 40 days at this time of year)  This is not going to be a colony at full strength.  Anyhow, I added a rack of sections (see Ross Rounds post).

Yours, eternally hopeful.

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Author: Roger

regaining my sanity through beekeeping

5 thoughts on “Swarm Control – The Rhythm Method!”

  1. Looks like you’re getting to know your little friends – don’t forget to tell them whats been going on – they love it.
    Shame you didn’t have your phone/camera with you for the swarm.
    Just to think this is happening right outside my back gate – shame I’m not there.
    Thanks for keeping me sane after long days aero rig testing in Berlin – sounds like a swarm of Bees (just a bit bigger…)

  2. I am a first spring beekeeper, and I have found that some hives afterswarm if there is more than 1 queen hatched. I had read the books, and expected the first queen out to just kill the others. Nope. They in fact hung out for a while – I inspected and found 4 queens. All virgins. Sadly I accidentally killed 3 trying to keep them off the frames, and then of course that hive did not have a queen 2 weeks later. She must not have made it back from mating. So, long story short, I wish I had split into 2 nucs each with a queen so I could just keep the queen who came back! and that I had split them BEFORE they tried to after swarm!

  3. Hi Roger
    Far better you re-house them than they go into the church tower or into the neighbours roofspace. However, inevitably you’re selecting for bees that have a tendency to swarm, so you can expect to have to do more of this as your stocks increase. I prefer to select from my least swarmy stocks as the stronger the colony gets, the more nectar they can collect.

    With a well-timed vertical split of a strong colony you can achieve the brood break, treat half of the colony with oxalic acid when broodless, re-queen the original hive or double your colony number … all using almost no extra equipment and with only one hive manipulation. Honey collection continues throughout. Many use a Snelgrove board for the same purpose – something I’m using on some of my colonies at the moment for comparison.

    35% of the Varroa leave with the swarm, so it’s well-worth treating them as soon as possible to give them the best possible start when building up a full colony.

    A swarm in May etc. is a 17th Century saying that reflects the likelihood of getting a honey crop from a captured swarm. A prime swarm hived in mid/late May should certainly yield a super or two of honey by the end of August. However, agricultural practices have changed a bit since then … I suspect we’re a whole lot more dependent on the timing of the OSR, field beans, borage etc. these days.

    Cheers
    David

  4. Roger, How long are you intending to keep your blue marked queen? I have one (well I haven’t seen her in a while but she was blue when she went in 4 weeks ago) and am undecided. Needless to say as an over wintered queen she cost a bomb but is doing a great job. Super being filled as I write!
    The last time I kept a queen into the next season I had swarms a go go. Any thoughts? I am also due to get a native black bee later this season the idea being she will be the over wintered queen for next year – but does anyone like to kill queens ?I don’t have a lot of space as I have the girls at the bottom of my suburban garden. My neighbors consider swarms a bad thing btw. So experimentation and finger crossing not the way to go perhaps.

  5. Hi Roger, I hope you got all but one of those queen cells. I must have missed one in mine as I had a virgin queen swarm yesterday after artificial swarming the hive last weekend. I captured the swarm so little harm done, but my honey crop might take a hit. Good luck with the rhythm technique.

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