Nature’s Reproductive Symphony

Honey bees swarm as part of their natural reproductive process. Swarming occurs when a single colony splits into two or more distinct colonies. This behaviour is essential for the propagation and genetic diversity of honey bee populations. During the swarming process, the old queen and a large group of worker bees leave the hive and temporarily cluster on a nearby structure while scout bees search for a suitable new home. Once a suitable location is found, the swarm relocates to the new site and begins building a new hive.

Here are some of the reasons honey bees swarm:

1. Overcrowding: When the hive becomes too crowded, the bees may decide to swarm to reduce congestion and provide more space for brood rearing and food storage.
2. Reproductive Impulse: Swarming is a natural reproductive instinct. The old queen leaves the hive with about half of the worker bees to establish a new colony, while a new queen is left behind to continue the original colony.
3. Genetic Diversity: Swarming helps in spreading the genetic material of the bees, promoting genetic diversity within the species, which is beneficial for their adaptation and survival.
4. Resource Availability: When resources like nectar and pollen are abundant, the colony can grow rapidly. Swarming allows the bees to take advantage of these resources by creating new colonies.

As beekeepers, we can manage swarming tendencies through various techniques, such as providing ample space, performing timely hive inspections, and employing swarm prevention methods to help maintain the colony and minimise disruption.

The two main problems with managed honey bees swarming is:

1. They can often choose their new home inside someone’s wall cavity or chimney, which is not always ideal for the residents; often leading to the ultimate euthanasia of the colonies if there is no other way to get them out. 
2. They spread bee diseases and pests to other colonies. There are many diseases that can spread easily from colony to colony. Most of these, whilst destructive to bee colony health and honey production, we have learned to manage over many years. However the new threat to our bees on parts of the east coast of Australia, is the Varroa Mite. These life-sucking parasites feed and survive only on honey bees. If we allow our managed bee colonies to swarm, the Mites can hitch a free ride on those bees, to infect other colonies. And if managed colonies are not regularly inspected by their owners, they will ultimately die out. 

There are many ways to manage swarming, by pre-empting exactly what they will ultimately do naturally. UNDERSTANDING BEE-HAVIOUR is key to success. Just a few methods we can use are:

1. Add a honey super – depending on honey stores in brood box
2. Add a brood box – many factors to consider before doing this
3. Splits – Walkaway split, artificial swarm, vertical split, horizontal split
4. Demaree Method 
5. Re-queening 
6. Frame manipulation

Each of these methods are used for different circumstances, beekeeper preference and timing factors. It depends on the honey flow at the time, the age of the queen, the rate of colony expansion, space in the apiary for additional colonies, time availability for the beekeeper, and of course budget with additional frames and boxes. 

In our Advanced Beekeekeeping Workshops https://bee-inspired.com.au/events-workshops/ we focus on all of the above, teaching more about the why, then allowing each beekeeper to try their own method/s based on their circumstances. There is no right / wrong way. The only right way is the way that works best for you to manage your bees to prevent them from swarming.

UNDERSTANDING BEE-HAVIOUR IS KEY TO SUCCESSFUL SWARM MANAGEMENT

BOOK HERE IF YOU ARE KEEN TO LEARN UPGRADE YOUR KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS WITH BEEKEEPING.