New Queen. Less likely to swarm?

[BeeJuice]

I began this year with four new colonies with four 2015 Queens.

I've had one swarm (which I caught) and two hives have made Queen cells prior to AS.

I've read and heard that commercial bee keepers requeen every year to avoid swarming problems - have I been unlucky or have local conditions like OSR overruled the normal rules?

Thanks for any comments

 

[For want of a better word]

I began this year with four new colonies with four 2015 Queens.

I've had one swarm (which I caught) and two hives have made Queen cells prior to AS.

I've read and heard that commercial bee keepers requeen every year to avoid swarming problems - have I been unlucky or have local conditions like OSR overruled the normal rules?

Thanks for any comments

Do not believe everything you read!

Any colony with any age queen has the propensity to swarm!
Reason for requeening mythology is because the Mediterranean types of bees are so incredibly prolific they literally run out of sperm and invariably become drone layers!
Also tend to be from swarmy stock.

Nos da

 

[BeeJuice]

Do not believe everything you read!

No! And my experience bears this out. I was exploring the myth. Thanks though, your comment explodes the myth

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Always makes me laugh - statements like 'queens don't swarm in the first year' and 'inspecting every two weeks is ample' (this from a bloke giving a workshop at this year's convention!!)

 

[YorkshireBees]

all the above and yes OSR will accelerate both the growth of a colony and the lack of space both of which can lead to swarming.

 

[enrico]

I wish!!

 

[YorkshireBees]

I wish!!

Well what can I say, location, location, location...

This hive has produced 50 lbs of honey from 2 supers so far and more to extract next week when I am back home..

Nevermind the other 11 hives!

 

[REDWOOD]

New Queen. Less likely to swarm?
That is entirely up to you. Second year queens are generally more prolific and if not managed properly will swarm. First year queens are usually building the colony to full size.

 

[masterBK]

Maybe I have just been lucky but my production colonies rarely make swarm preparations once they have been requeened in late May (will be early June this year as everything seems a couple of weeks behind). I do tend to breed most of my new queens from selected 3 yr old queens whose colonies have not made swarm preparations in previous years.

 

[beeno]

I only found out yesterday that I manage my hives on the same principles as Mark Winston, which means that I have usually late supersedure.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Its the vicious circle thingy, your queens are so young and strong, so they lay more and have huge colonies, in turn they gather more nectar and in turn the brood nest quickly becomes filled. Swarm preparations start!
And the cycle starts again.
If you have young strong queens, you need to be ready to Demaree or keep making splits. Just enough to stop the population dwindle, but not enough population so they swarm.
Someone once told me, beekeeping is all about swarm Management. If you can stop your bees swarming, you've virtually mastered beekeeping.
I would say that most professional beekeepers probably renew their queens in their second year, or every year, more so, so they have very strong and vigorous. However, i believe new queens do swarm less if there managed correctly.

 

[Fatbee]

I only found out yesterday that I manage my hives on the same principles as Mark Winston, which means that I have usually late supersedure.

Interesting, what principles are they?