Signs and Triggers of Swarming

Signs and Triggers of Swarming#

1 . Swarming is a natural method of colony reproduction, and every colony will want to swarm. What alerts the beekeeper that a colony is preparing to swarm?

The rearing of queen cells in the spring

2 . What are some of the clues outside the colony that the beekeeper can observe to ascertain that the colony may swarm?

  • The time of year (spring- but bees can swarm any time of year)

  • Length of the days (longer days lead up to the swarm instinct)

  • Nectar availability- swarms usually occur just before a major nectar flow

  • Warm weather

3 . What are some of the clues inside the colony that alerts the beekeeper that the colony is about to swarm?

  • The formation of queen cups/cells increases just days or a week before the swarm.

  • Colonies seal between 15-25 queen cups before swarming.

  • Brood nest congestion: increased population of bees and congestion in the colony

  • With congestion comes reduced distribution of 9ODA (queen pheromone).

  • Each worker needs 0.1 microgram of 9ODA per day to be inhibited from producing queen cells.

  • When the colony is over congested, there is less and less queen pheromone distributed to individual workers each day; workers constructs queen cells as a result.

4 . What happens to the queen before swarming?

The queen is fed generously in the weeks before swarming so she will produce lots of brood, one week before swarming workers feed her less and her egg laying drops. The workers butt her with their heads 40-80 times per hour to keep her walking around the nest, halt egg laying, which will cause her ovaries to shrink and she will lose weight. During this time, she will lose about 25% of her weight.

5 . What is happening in the colony a week or so before swarming?

  • Scout bees are looking for a new nesting site.

  • Worker bees are relatively quiet

  • New queen cells are capped

  • Worker bees engorge themselves with honey for 10 days before swarming- to have plenty to survive in case the weather turns cold.

  • Workers will have roughly 36 mg of honey in the honey crop before swarming instead of the usual 10 mg of honey.

  • Scout bees must find a new place for the swarm to live before the honey in their crop is used up and they need enough energy to return to the swarm for their recruitment dance.

6 . What is happening in the colony just hours before a swarm?

  • Worker bees run across the combs in waves exciting each other.

  • The queen is chased and bitten.

  • A wave of bees rushes out the front of the hive and takes the queen with them.

  • If the queen is not with them- they return to the hive (False swarm).