Supersedure to delay swarming?

[Sutty]

Some "unusual" ideas may be worth a try for beeks that have run out of boxes & find swarm preparations. I've been in that situation myself this year & still have more colonies than I want!

 

[magor]

Ok, so are you saying that you would ideally want to move young nurse bees up to middle-aged bees which produce wax, and then give them plenty of room to build new comb so that they are employed away from the brood-nest, thus alleviating one of the triggers for swarming?

If so, I imagine nadiring the colony warre-style without giving them much/any comb would be the way to go.

what am saying is why i think that mid-age bees are those who swarm and be more responsible for swarm fever alongside all other parametres as everything in bees is multifactorial , ideally d be keeping nurses as long as can in nursing life and pushing mid-age bees into pollen foraging meaning more young larvae brood wanted for that while also keep busy with drawing combs them wax glads , but i do no use anything more than boxes (and mostly as a unit, i even rare play with frames) and QX as tools

so my swarm control is i try do the simples so as keep the broodnest box(es) as clear as can for lay only ,for example when time comes nadiring drawn combs shallow for pollen stores and supering so as bees draw combs and after depends the honey arc vs brood i play with QX height to keep broodnest up or push down and also i nuc old good Queens to use them early spring swarm cells for divide colonies in 2-3- or even sometimes 4? pieces before them show swarm attempts and then reunite(double brood boxes) which ones i do no want to keep with a Q colony want to keep when flow is on ,and when colony shows swarm preps i ussually pagden the mother or if she is old enouf and want keep her genes nuc her for using her Qcells upcoming summer for supersedure any fail or next spring for divides as above

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

what am saying is why i think that mid-age bees are those who swarm and be more responsible for swarm fever

it's the younger bees that make wax etc, it has been demonstrated in various studies that it's the older foraging bees that are the ones who are the swarming instigators.

 

[BaconWizard]

This thread is all well and good but, in some respects, some of it comes under the auspices of 'bee fiddling' in my book...

I'm a low impact beekeeper ... I do inspect, regularly, not as much as some on here recommend, but I know my bees, they are in the garden, I look at them daily - often several times a day and I get an almost sixth sense feel that I need to look in a colony. Perhaps it's just subtle differences that my subconscious notices or do the bees communicate with me on a level I don't appreciate ? It's surprising that when I open a colony up because I feel the need that I find something that needs attention ... but then open up others and it's business as usual ...

Anyway, I rather think that, sometimes, we spend too much time and effort tearing their home apart for no really good reason. Bees will swarm given the right conditions and giving space, at the right time, is often enough to reduce the swarming urge. I'm of the opinion that swarming can also be triggered by upsetting the colony equilibrium ... intensive inspections, searching for queens unecessarily, pulling every frame out of the brood box, keeping the hive open for long periods all disturb the natural order of a colony.

I'm sure that bees have become conditioned, over the millennia, to appreciate what is a good safe home for them and if they found a hole in a tree where a bear arrived every week to try and get at their honey - do you think they would stay there ?

My bees, this year, have made no attempts to swarm .. well, one colony made a few play cups then tore them down. There's a mixture of queens in the colonies, I've had a couple supercede and I guess I'm lucky - but, it's been a swarmy year down here and I'm the exception.

If you watch a beefarmer doing inspections .. they are quick, light and look only for essential information. We amateurs could do well to take a leaf out of their book.

As Erichalfbee says, I am believer in exploration for exploration’s sake. If the knowledge is there to be had, I want it, and don’t necessarily expect it to be something useful.

I am big supporter of things like space exploration where many people fail to see the practical value, while enjoying the unforeseen benefits of it every single day.

If there is anything unique about human intelligence, then it is the imagination and desire to explore, both actually and metaphorically. We should do as much of it as possible and then notice and put to good use whatever shakes out of it.

In the unlikely event that a bona-fide technique comes of some theory and speculation, then GOOD.

As I said earlier, more options IS better, no matter how much one might prefer the tried and tested methods.

One of the reasons it’s better is that it could give you options for NOT going into the colony as often, in order to achieve something, especially if you are happy to play the averages which I am.