Swarm Swarm Prevention Swarm Management for the small

Swarm! Swarm Prevention & Swarm Management for the small apiary 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 1

Welcome to The Spring 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 2

Why not let them Swarm…it’s so natural! Natural no more Great Queen Varroa protection What they lose Your Swarm Honey What you lose Goodwill Housing 20% 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template Choices Your swarm will have to deal with Varroa on their own, and will, while they struggle, send Varroa-laden drift bees back to you and the area hives. They are not likely to survive the winter. Opportunity Costs Losing a swarm means you lose the opportunity to make increase, or tons o’ honey, or sell the extra colony, or breed from that great overwintered queen. 3

The Why? And How? Of Swarming Swarms are the way bees reproduce. Any healthy, overwintered hive will WANT to swarm: they have to for the species to survive. There is nothing wrong with or bad about the swarm impulse: but you want to keep all your (expensive) bees! A healthy overwintered hive begins to brood up small amounts in January/February/March Queen cups are made, usually on the bottom of frames. When the first nectar flows hit, they begin brooding at max rate Eggs are laid in the queen cups = queen cells Once their hive gets crowded, various feedback loops signal: time to swarm (high brood pheromone, no room for queen to lay, increased CO 2 levels) 6/7/2021 In 7 days the queen cells are capped and the swarm takes off The swarm contains the old queen, and half the bees of all ages Charlie - A Presentation Template 4

Your Options: Prevent or Manage! Prevent Buy queens Room to lay Prevent Swarm Impulse Try to head off the conditions that drive swarming: being crowded with new brood when the foragers are bringing in a lot of forage. Force? Manage QMP sticks Manage When swarming is inevitable, manage it to your advantage. Feeds Make queens 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template Set them free… 5

Swarm Timeline 2018 6/7/2021 1 st Backfilling Sudden drop in lay Nectar begins to appear in the broodnest cells Suddenly you notice there a lot fewer eggs on the frames. Is the queen ok? ? 2 nd 3 rd 4 th SWARM! Drone Brood Queen cups appear Eggs in queen cups! Drones are laid roughly 10+ days ahead of the queen cells Shallow, downward facing cups usually on the bottoms of frames. Now we have outright queen cells! Swarm is 7 days away!!! Charlie - A Presentation Template 6

1/5 Drone Brood appears Drone Brood Drone brood is plump and bubble shaped…it looks like a puffy quilt top. Drones are typically laid in quantity about 10 days before queen cells are started. (because drones take longer to make… 24 days as opposed to the 16 days for queens) Both drones and queens must take a few days to mature before mating flights. 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 7

2/5 Backfilling of nectar in the broodnest Backfilling with nectar Nectar flows support brood-rearing: there is plenty of food to feed those new baby bees! But. The queen needs cells to lay in. If the house bees are running out of room, they will start competing with the queen for room. Brood and nectar are adjacent. Times are good + home is crowded = time to swarm! 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 8

3/5 Queen cups Appear Queen cups Laid toward the bottom or off the bottom of the frame. Stubby until an egg is laid. Open end faces down. A sign the worker bees are thinking of swarming. 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 9

4/5 Queen slows down or stops laying eggs Lay rate drops A week or two ago, you saw big areas full of eggs. But suddenly, there are not so many, maybe none at all. Is there something wrong with the queen? The bees have stopped feeding her, getting her slimmed down, exercised, and ready to fly. 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 10

5/5 Queen cups become Queen Cells Day 1: an egg is laid in a queen cup. Once an egg is laid in a queen cup it becomes a queen cell. The swarm will leave when the new queen cells are capped. Queen cells are capped on Day 7!!! Get busy, beekeeper! 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 11

6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template Section Swarm Prevention 1 12

Swarm prevention: don’t give them a reason… Room/ Reversal QMP sticks Equalize Feeds Open up broodnest Equalize Pheromone sticks Diet time! Give HRH empty drawn frames or waxed foundation beside and above brood area or reverse boxes. Slatted racks can also help. Give brood from strong hives to small hives…add empty frames to the strong hives. Adding queen mandibular pheromone sticks will help suppress the swarm impulse. Stop or reduce feeding if hive is getting crowded and lots of food is coming in. Feeding drives swarming. 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 13

when prevention fails… 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template Section Swarm Management 2 14

So Many ways to split…here are some easy ones Queen cells 6/7/2021 Walk away or overnight split Buy a Queen Charlie - A Presentation Template Take the queen out… 15

Important Warning! This traditional approach works, but not well, even when fed! Our cool summers don’t help. Do not make a little nuc up with some bees and eggs and ask it to make a queen! 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 16

Use your Queen Cells When you see charged queen cups/queen cells, use them Set up small colonies with at least 2 frames of bees and brood Put one or two of the queen cells into each small colony Feed (syrup & pollen sub) the colonies, as they are small and low on foragers Check for a mated, laying queen in 30 days 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 17

Buy a Queen! Set up a new hive and put into it at least 2 frames of bees and brood from a big hive, plus some stores. Feed as there are not many foragers in the new hive. After 4 hours, or overnight, introduce a purchased queen. Check in 1 day to make sure she’s been released. Check in 1 week to be sure she is laying. 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 18

Walk Away splits Set up a second set of equipment next to your hive to be split Give half the stores frames to the new stack. Give half the brood and bees to the new stack. Check in 3 days: one will have the laying queen, one will have queen cells, which you must cull down to 2. Feed both stacks until the queen cells are sealed (day 7) 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 19

Overnight splits Move all the open brood to an upper box, over a queen excluder. Shake all bees into the bottom box. HRH, capped brood and all bees are below the queen excluder. Overnight, the nurse bees will move up to cover brood. Remove the top box onto its own stand, cover. Monitor and cull the resulting queen cells in new colony. 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 20

Roy Thurber Split: take the old girl away In a new hive or nuc setup put the queen and 2 or 3 frames of bees and brood + stores. Feed until established. Her old colony, now queenless, will raise queen cells. Feed. In 3 or 4 days, cull the queen cells to the 2 best. Check in 30 days from splitting for a mated, laying queen. This results in big, easy-to-find queens. 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 21

Points to Consider. . . 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 22

Things that make you go Hmmmmm…. Do you want more hives? 6/7/2021 20% of queens die on their mating flights… Charlie - A Presentation Template Timing. 23

The Joy of Splitting Home Grown Queens! The best thing about making splits is the great queens you get from them. You created this queen. You made sure she got the best start possible. And that sets your apiary up for…success. 6/7/2021 Charlie - A Presentation Template 24