Queen Removal as swarm control

[beeno]

Hi all,
In the paper from MAAREC which Finman so kindly put on the forum, queen removal was one form of swarm control - queen removed, all QCs removed including EQC 7-9 days later so as to make the colony hopelessly queenless followed by introduction of new laying queen. Does anyone on the forum practice this type of swarm control? This would mean less of a brood break and you would have a tested laying queen heading the colony.

 

[dickbowyer]

I think Roger Patterson does this for swarm control.

 

[Apple]

Practiced by some to produce a ( q-) queencell rearing colony

The removed queen can be utilised to make up a nuc, queen cells for mating nucs, if queen mother was respectable enough!


James

 

[Finman]

.
This actually same method which was written in poly nuc case.

So, you take a queen off and then wait that the hive is not able to rear new queen cells any more. You brake all queen cells and wait that the hive looses its mind.

I do not believe this system at all.

In normal AS method the AS starts to draw fgoundations and looses its swarm fever in 3 days. Queen starts lay again and fill a box with eggs in one week.
Some AS start next night the comb drawing.

Breaking queen cells and waiting something? It does not work. The hive is waiting swarming and does not want to draw foundations or to forage honey. A miserable tool.


Breaking queen cells. There is allways a big probability that you do not find them all and the swarm escapes. Low emergency cells are difficult to find under bee carpet.

 

[Heather]

Totally agree Finman.. And just cos RP does it doesn't mean it is ok!

 

[Jimmys Mum]

I did this on one colony last season (ran out of kit so limited options). The hive seemed to lose its momentum and never really got going again afterwards. There may well have been other factors involved (unknown to me) but it went into winter as my weakest hive. I'd only do it again if I had no other options.

I will continue to use the full AS method again this season, Pagden style! Works for me and my hives managed this way still gave good yields, so I can't see any reason to change. I have upped my kit levels to ensure I can cope with simultaneous swarming preparations.

 

[Finman]

I did this on one colony last season (ran out of kit so limited options). The hive seemed to lose its momentum and never really got going again afterwards.

I used 20 years system that I took a queen away for main yield. It worked well but some hives lost their motivation to work.

 

[richardbees]

The beekeeper who manages the hives in the gardens at Buckingham Palace appears to use this technique - to prevent swarms in the garden party season.

(Alan Titchmarsh's "a year in BP gardens" ITV after the Q's speech on Xmas day)