Swarm Management#
1 . What are the two most important observations in the hive that should alert the beekeeper that a hive is about to swarm?
Hive congestion
Presence of queen cells
2 . When the beekeeper is concerned about swarming because of congestion, what are some of the things they can do to help prevent swarming?
Make splits by removing the queen along with several frames of bees, brood and honey. Place these frames into a new hive box.
Equalize colonies
Reverse hive bodies
Add a super
3 . What is meant by equalizing?
Taking brood and/or bees from a strong colony and supplementing the weaker colony with resources from a stronger colony
4 . What is meant by equalizing brood?
Take 1-3 frames of brood after shaking off the nurse bees from a strong colony and place the frames of brood into a weaker colony. Replace the combs you take from the stronger colony with empty combs. Keep the donated frames together in the center of the brood nest in the weaker colony.
5 . What is meant by equalizing hives?
Switch positions of strong and weak hives in the apiary. Do this in the middle of the afternoon so foraging bees return to the original position of their nest and are oblivious that you switched positions. Under conditions of good nectar flow there is no fighting. Weak colonies gain population at the expense of the stronger colony.
6 . What is the advantage of “reversing hive bodies” in the spring if you are using 2 deeps?
In early spring, bees move up and are unwilling to move down even though the bottom hive body is nearly empty. Reversing hive bodies puts most of the bees and brood back on the bottom relieving congestion and providing abundant space above them