Close Call Swarm

[Forester Doug]

I inspected my hive today after a longer than intended interval of 20 days. In that time the bees had been super productive, they looked like they were preparing for swarming, there were tonnes of drone cells on one of the superframes, and I can only assume queen cells between the brood frames and the superframes, these all got destroyed while inspecting the hive due to the cells being ripped apart.

I had left the queen excluder off the brood box as I was told the bees tend to not draw on the superframes that the queen cannot access, so my intention was to let them draw them out, then move the queen down into the brood box and then exclude her.

My bees still had space in the hive, though at the extremities so all empty frames have now been moved centrally. I am now considering adding a second super box on top during my next inspection.

These bees are very different from my last Colony as they are super productive, but also fairly defensive, vs my old docile, yet not very productive colony than died out. Do any experienced beekeepers have any advice for keeping the bees calm, and reducing swarming chances? the last time i visited I thought they were in no position to swarm, and seem to have gone from 0-100 miles an hour very quickly.

 

[enrico]

Good flows on . They will go like the proverbial. Insect five to seven days and give room to help you manage swarming with some sort of swarm control. You won't prevent it.
As long as they are defensive and not aggressive, move slowly, keep calm, inspect at 11am when flyers are out but not fed up!
E

 

[Erichalfbee]

If you had queen cells in that colony you’d better get back in tomorrow to do some sort of artificial swarm.
Destroying them buys you little if no time at all.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If you had queen cells in that colony you’d better get back in tomorrow to do some sort of artificial swarm.
Destroying them buys you little if no time at all.

I had left the queen excluder off the brood box as I was told the bees tend to not draw on the superframes that the queen cannot access,

Now that's a new one on me!

 

[Xtrema]

Now that's a new one on me!

Me too. Never heard of that one.