BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > TOP BAR HIVES - WARRE HIVES - LONG HIVES
Long hives swarming before honey flow.
Bob Wilson:
I agree, 15Member. Thanks for the comments. They help.
Maybe all three boxes swarmed because they are all genetically from the same first queen I caught.
Maybe the the broodnest had to much traffic to get out the entrance.
Maybe they just all hit a critical mass of population.
It's hard for a junior beek like me to decipher. I will add this situation to my overall beekeeping continued education.
Acebird:
--- Quote from: Bob Wilson on March 22, 2021, 07:17:29 pm ---But I tend to think my swarming complaints are just an excuse for still not understanding how to manage them.
--- End quote ---
I don't think so Bob. We all started with no experience and most with little knowledge. I still don't know much. You have been changing what you do yet the results are still the same on all your hives. The only thing I think you could try is a Lang hive where there is more experience to draw from. Maybe just start one hive while you rustle with the others.
cao:
The ultimate goal of most of the life on earth is to survive and multiply. Your bees survived through winter and have built up to a point that they feel they have enough excess to go and multiply. The timing of it before the flow in your area will benefit the swarm by having a good food supply to build up for winter. And the brood break in the main colony will free up a lot of the nurse bees to do other tasks and increases the field bee numbers. This should increase the honey stores for the original hive. This is the basic explanation to what is going on. How to stop them from swarming? I think you have done what you could as far as giving them space to grow. The problem with your bees is that urge to multiply. That is not a bad thing as long as they only swarm once and not continue to throw afterswarms until nothing left. In a good year it can be difficult to prevent swarming whereas in a bad year where the bees are struggling, they tend to stay at home and not swarm.
To prevent them from swarming in the future you may have to pull the queen and some bees to simulate a swarm(before they decide to). Putting them in a nuc until your main hive gets a laying queen then selling of giving away the nuc. That may be the only way to stay with 3 hives. I always tell new beekeepers that you can't expect to have a certain number of hives. You have a range of hives, low to high. If on wants 5, then expect to have a range of 2-10 hives. When you have excess you can sell them. When you have a deficit you split to make up the difference.
Bob Wilson:
Thanks Cao. Much appreciated.
Acebird:
--- Quote from: cao on March 23, 2021, 12:10:20 pm --- I always tell new beekeepers that you can't expect to have a certain number of hives.
--- End quote ---
Yup
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