Easy swarm control - is there such a thing?

[Karsal]

Take a leaf out of the big boys book, they keep it nice and simple.
Under a thread Commercial swarm control methods

I was once told by an old gentleman who had kept bees for over 50 years that he had once forgotten to take a queen excluder off one of his colonies entrances.
The bees swarmed and rested in a tree opposite the hive one sunny afternoon. That evening they all went back into the hive and this continued for over a week. He then noticed the excluder on and removed it and noticed the new virgin queen had hatched.
Did she kill the old queen? because he said they never swarmed after that.

 

[Eyeman]

And these are the bees the BBKA would have us breed from...

Are those the ones responsible for that average yield of 23.8 lbs / colony this year?

 

[colinc]

Sure the commercials would be happy and able to retire early on 24lbs a year


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[madasafish]

Are those the ones responsible for that average yield of 23.8 lbs / colony this year?

One has to assume so..

So breed from carp..

 

[drex]

Like any survey, the answer depends on who you ask. I suspect it is new enthusiastic bee keepers who respond, with little experience. Old cynics like me never bother. Honey production is not my main priority, but I would chuck it in if only getting that amount per hive.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

And these are the bees the BBKA would have us breed from...

Don't take the Michael! I used to have bees that would swarm with 5 or 6 frames of brood. Last year 1 colony swarmed. The remaining dozen didn't. And honey production was a lot more that the BBKA average too.

 

[Millet]

Are those the ones responsible for that average yield of 23.8 lbs / colony this year?

I got 15lb from them angry ones one year and around 6lb the following year.. which is strange because the forage they have is in a endless cycle, come to think of it the year i got the 15lb was when the field near the hive was OSR.