Artificial Swarm Method - Is This Right?

[Haughton Honey]

Can more experienced beekeepers please have a read through the directions below and see if I've got this correct. Perhaps we could build this into a more comprehensive set of directions by people adding their own little techniques?Thanks!


1. Get equipment ready: Floor, Brood chamber with prepared frames, Crown board, Lifts (if you have a WBC), and Roof

2. Remove roof (and lifts) from parent hive

3. Keeping crown board in place lift all supers from parent hive and place on upturned roof (or lift)

4. Remove queen excluder from parent hive and place to side of hive

5. Place spare crown board on parent hive and move floor and brood box intact to new location 4-5 feet to right of old location

6. Place new floor and brood chamber on site of old location with entrance in same direction as the original

7. Remove centre frame from new brood chamber and place beside hive in new location

8. Remove crown board on parent hive and search for queen

9. Remove the frame with the old queen to the new brood box after having destroyed any queen cells that exist on this frame

10. Place crown board back on parent hive

11. Put queen excluder back on new brood chamber and replace supers on to new brood chamber

12. Return to new location. Remove crown board and close up frames and insert the blank frame to one side and replace crown board

13. Replace old roof (and lifts) on old site and new roof (and lift) on new site

 

[Poly Hive]

One step that I would add is remove all the cells EXCEPT 2 OPEN ones in the parent stock. Reason for open is it gives the bees an extra 8 days at least to settle down again.

PH

 

[MrTrueman]

PH/Anyone,

Is it right you would only leave 1 frame of brood in the queen right colony?

 

[beekeepershens]

the last time I saw this was on a double brood box and the old queen was placed in one box and moved away wit hth e supers and a single queen cell left on the old site

This way the flying bees and some house bees would remain to look after the emerging queen hopefully they would not make any more QC on eggs and the old queen would have a consideably reduced colony same as if she had swarmed

 

[Poly Hive]

Depending on the strength of the colony yes one frame should be enough and really it's there to nail down the swarm.

PH

 

[Hebeegeebee]

PH,
You say 2 open queen cells, not one? Do you reduce down to one later or leave the bees to do what they want?

 

[jon]

PH,
You say 2 open queen cells, not one? Do you reduce down to one later or leave the bees to do what they want?

You are not likely to get a swarm with hardly any flying bees.

This is also a good time to requeen this part of the Artificial Swarm if you want to.

With regard to the question above about how much brood to put in the queenright part, I sometimes add a frame or two of emerging brood which will provide more nurse bees.
You have to be very careful there are no early stage queen cells on the frames.