Will all bees eventually swarm?

Bee’s Knees · May 30, 2023

I am in my second year of bee keeping.
From what I have read so far a bees inclination to swarm is all about space.

My question is if you were to always provide enough brood space does that stop the urge to swarm or does natural instinct eventually just kick in anyway and they will want to swarm anyway?

If not adding extra boxes can I just keep creating space by taking frames of brood away to help other colonies and keep hives from reaching full capacity?

enrico · May 30, 2023

Bees in a hive are bees in a hive. If they die they are all dead. Bees reproduce by swarming. Reproduction is necessary to continue the species. It is in their genes. All bees need to swarm. You may get away with it for a year, even two or three but eventually they will swarm.

Ian123 · May 30, 2023

Bees are inclined to swarm its natural, in some well bred bees breeders have worked to reduce that inclination. It’s not always about space but if you provide both super and additional laying space it certainly helps. Cramming even well bred bees will result in swarming.
You can balance out hives but it’s a chore if your continually doing it and I’m not sure there’s such a thing as capacity if your adding space, I’ve had and seen some real towers in the past.
Part of beekeeping is managing your hives you want a large work force at the right time of year, a decent large hive will often outperform several mediocre ones,

Young queens space ahead of time in both supers and the brood area will all help. But learning a method of swarm control or prevention is also part of the job.

jenkinsbrynmair · May 30, 2023

Bee’s Knees said:
From what I have read so far a bees inclination to swarm is all about space.

It's also about reproduction and increasing colonies

Bee’s Knees said:
if you were to always provide enough brood space does that stop the urge to swarm or does natural instinct eventually just kick in anyway and they will want to swarm anyway?

yes

BaconWizard · May 30, 2023

For context, I'm a newbee too with a lot of reading and study but not much experience.

But the answer to your question is yes, all honeybees will eventually swarm given the appropriate circumstances/triggers.

You may have encountered lists of swarming "triggers", and it's not that all of these CAUSE swarming necessarily, but many are more-so indicators of a good TIME to swarm. One of the famous factors in swarming is lengthening days, hence we have a swarm season that theoretically ends in July. (although there are always late and early swarms too)

Each of these triggers may be more or less strong, so for example it could be rather late in the year for swarming, but if the broodbox is very congested for any length of time this might override the shortening days of sunlight as a priority.

Finally, bees are highly complex creatures with their own temperaments, and any "trigger" or indeed "rule" in beekeeping is only ever a tendency or rule of thumb. Hence some bees will swarm the second it's feasible and others wait for everything to be almost perfect.

So even with a single colony, you are always playing the averages.

Garry R · May 30, 2023

Swarming is for making increase of the species. Supersedure of a failing or ageing queen just keeps a colony going without increasing numbers so long as the virgin mates OK. Swarming and casting is risky (poor weather following swarming leading to starvation, or virgin failing to mate successfully or gets lost) but it's the only way bees can increase colony numbers naturally without the beekeepers getting in the way! But , hey, it the only way the bees can go and millions of years say it's pretty successful.