Why bees swarm with a super on

1454 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by BjornBee, Apr 11, 2009

thomas

Discussion Starter · Apr 8, 2009

Hello

I am new here but i need to know why my bees swarm and they had a super on them with only two frames to draw out. This is the second time they have done this they have honey stored in the frames but they did not even cap it they just went on and swarmed.

Thomas

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indypartridge

· #4 · Apr 8, 2009

So look to suppress as much as you can, and then accept the fact that even with everything going correctly, you may still have about 50% swarming of healthy colonies.

So, accepting that you are going to have some hives swarm, the other part of the equation is putting up swarm traps in hopes of catching them when they do!

Also, if the brood nest has a cap of honey over it for 4 to 6 inches, they will not move it for her to move up. She won't cross it and split her brood nest.

Gosh I wish my bees would learn this! My queens seem to go wherever the heck they want. On more than one occasion I've put wet supers back on the hive ABOVE the inner cover for them to clean up, only to go back a couple days later to find the queen laying in them. The biggest lesson I've learned since beginning to keep bees is that my bees don't read the books on how they're supposed to beehave!

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