Swarm Season
Back when my wife and I first started keeping bees, everything was fine and dandy until swarm season came along. Since we were only keeping bees for two years, our experience with swarms was not much at all.
During the first year of keeping bees, we only had two hives and never noticed if they had swarmed, since we both work regular jobs and are not home all the time. In our second year, we decided to add some additional hives and started spending more time working with the bees.
I believe we were up to six or seven hives by the second year and when swarm season arrived I was very busy catching swarms, almost one swarm every day for a week.
By our third year of beekeeping, our hive count grew to 13 hives and I just could not keep up with chasing after swarms. I actually took seven swarms over the course of the summer and fall from one little tree in our bee yard.
Frustrated with seeing our bees fly away, we began to talk to other beekeepers for some of their solutions to prevent swarms. The two methods we find work the best are 1) splitting your hive in late spring and 2) the 70% Rule.
Many articles have been written about splitting overflowing hives in late spring, so I won’t go into the mechanics of how to do it, but we do indeed split every one of our overwintered hives usually around the third week of May here in Pennsylvania.
I came up with what I call The 70% Rule after thinking why most hives swarm. After noticing that most of our hives swarm when their hive boxes are so full there is no longer any room for the queen to lay new eggs, I started adding the first honey super. Although there is no need to add the honey super for the bees to store honey in, the additional box gives the queen more room. With the addition of the honey super, the queen now has a whole new world available to her to lay new eggs and allows more room for the rest of the bees in the hive to move about.
I have noticed there sometimes is brood in a frame or two of the honey super, but I have no problem with that as the brood will eventually hatch and the bees will store honey in those cells at a later time. A little brood in a honey frame or two is better than half of the bees leaving. After applying the honey super for the last 5 years and splitting our hives, swarm activity in our bee yard is almost none.
I came up with the title The 70% Rule because the time to apply the first honey super on top of the hive supers is when 7 out of 10 frames in the top hive super are filled, either with brood, eggs, larva or honey. I have found that when there are three or fewer frames of open comb for the queen to work with, then adding the honey box to the hive should be done.
Although there are no guarantees with bees swarming, It is actually a simple method to help with swarm prevention and does not involve any other equipment other than what the beekeeper already has on hand.
Thanks for reading and until next time Keep Them Buzzing!
Dave
9 Comments
I am 73 yrs, a widow and interested in keeping chickens and bees. My health is good, and I do a sml at of gardening. Do you think it reasonable for a person my age to attempt beekeeping? Does the task require heavy lifting? Thanks, Max
My father finally got out of keeping bees at age 87. He used only 10-frame deep Langstroth equipment. One super full of honey weighs around 70 pounds and he did fine with them. Your mileage may vary.
If weight is a problem, consider using 10-frame medium or shallow boxes for both brood and honey. A full 10-frame medium will weigh about 50 pounds. If you think that’s still too heavy, you can go with 8-frame medium or shallow boxes which weigh about 40 pounds when full.
Regardless of the size of box you choose, keeping everything to one size simplifies management.
I learned the 70% rule over 50 years ago as a 4-H beekeeper. Our 4-H leader taught us to add a supper when 70% of the frames were full or nearly full OR when the frame top-bars are “black” with bees when lifting the cover, whichever comes first. When either condition exists, the beekeeper is inviting a swarm.
However, it’s important to NOT add too much space too soon because heating/cooling that extra volume imposes an unnecessary labor burden on the bees.
Same here, been using this “rule” for 50+ years, you’ll also find it discussed in nearly ALL beekeeping literature. This author seems to think he’s created something that was obvious to beekeepers for a hundred or more years. Additionally he mentions putting the new super on the top, which is actually a wrong move; it is better to always put the new super on top of the brood box and under the other supers.
70% rule.there is a saturation point when you have all the hives you(want,need,can handle).wheather you prevent them from swarming or do splits an increase in hives is just that.at this point you change gears to producing bees for sale.whats in your plan?bee an invester in sound judgement to your commitment.
old lady here,and cant picture splitting a hive mine have swormed 2 times this mon. I only have 2 hives.one sworm has gone under my house I don’t know what to do .is there a dvd on this promlem or book whit pics? thanks for your help Audrey in texas
The Czech solar thermal hive project lead reports that allowing bees 3 full size frames of drone brood and requeening every other year stops the swarming. The theory is that with enough drone brood the bees are already contributing to the reproductive pool and don’t need to swarm as much in the second year. the first year the new queen inhibits the swarming need. I believe they use a 20 frame brood chamber which would have the same effect as your solution.
Max,
If we we’re only neighbors. Take on a young apprentice. Local high school,church, you would be surprised the interest out there.
Jim
Dave, in the example above I gather that when you add a honey super you do not put in a queen excluder. Is that the case?
I have four hives and do not want to add any additional hives via a split yet I do not want any hive to swarm either. Not putting on a queen excluder seems to be a good solution.
thanks Dave.