Swarm control

[Greatbigchicken]

My swarm control this year didn't exactly go as planned so I'm looking at other methods. I have limited space in my garden so I'm looking at vertical artificial swarm techniques.

What are the pros and cons of the Snelgrove or Horsley boards?

 

[meidel]

If doing a vertical split I've found that it's more effective when done as a pre-emptive than reactive measure. That is to say by moving the brood away from the queen as soon as drone brood is seen. They tend to raise emergency queen cells rather than swarm cells in the top box. Whatever the books might say about not needing to check the lower box where the queen is, it pays to make sure that the bees are doing what they should be - building up the foundation for the queen to lay.

This year, I also discovered that if you have a swarmy strain of bees, you might have to do a second A/S with the more mature queen.

 

[Greatbigchicken]

Thanks for the advice Meidel, I think I'll have a go at making a Horsley board and trying it on my garden hive, if this works I'll make more for my others.

If doing a vertical split I've found that it's more effective when done as a pre-emptive than reactive measure. That is to say by moving the brood away from the queen as soon as drone brood is seen. They tend to raise emergency queen cells rather than swarm cells in the top box. Whatever the books might say about not needing to check the lower box where the queen is, it pays to make sure that the bees are doing what they should be - building up the foundation for the queen to lay.

This year, I also discovered that if you have a swarmy strain of bees, you might have to do a second A/S with the more mature queen.