Clipping the Queen

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the beehive lodge

House Bee
Joined
Jul 14, 2010
Messages
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Location
Chorlton Manchester M21
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
2
What are your thoughts on clipping the Q to prevent her leaving with half the colony. in paleopersons thread (swarmy little beggers) could the swarm have been prevented
by doing this bee-smillie
 
I was told it just prevents her getting far so you can find a swarm easily, doesn't prevent her doing it though.
 
With nucs going for a hundred and fifty quid this last season, could you really afford to lose a potential large nuc and most of your honey crop?

Simple economics. Very simple for beefarmers, who may not be able to inspect at weekly intervals. Further, longer-than-weekly intervals may mean more hives per person, so further efficiency gains at little expense of the honey crop. New queens are installed regularly and swarmy ones are not wanted, so the beefarmer would likely simply introduce a spare laying queen, from stock, with no loss in honey crop whatsoever if the swarming had occurred less than 3 weeks before the end of the flow.

Certainly cheaper to buy in a queen at the very worst or settle for a reasonable split to raise an extra colony in a few weeks time....

I PP's case the queen could very well have been lost, had they swarmed further away and/or if there had been long grass the queen could have been lost into. The swarm would not have been prevented, they would just have gone back to the hive, queenless after a period of time, or clustered around the flightless queen on the ground.

In the scenario of not being captured by the beek, I am not sure what a swarm in that situation would do, when the scouts found a suitable abode.

Regards, RAB
 

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