Thomas,
I hope it's not still blowing down there...
Swarming is attributed to nature's desire to perpetuate the species. Yes, lack of room, age of the queen, and other factors do increase or decrease the rate of swarming. But the number one factor is flow. Healthy hives, regardless of room, number of supers, or anything else, will swarm as dictated by nature.
If you had ten hives and did nothing, 9 out of 10 would swarm. By expanding the brood chamber, rotating boxes, and all the other tricks used, you will lower the impulse to swarm, and if your lucky you may get the percentage down to 50% or less. But you will never stop the swarming.
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.
Unhealthy hives normally do not swarm...healthy one's do. So you are doing your job, and the bees are doing theirs.
I hope it's not still blowing down there...
Swarming is attributed to nature's desire to perpetuate the species. Yes, lack of room, age of the queen, and other factors do increase or decrease the rate of swarming. But the number one factor is flow. Healthy hives, regardless of room, number of supers, or anything else, will swarm as dictated by nature.
If you had ten hives and did nothing, 9 out of 10 would swarm. By expanding the brood chamber, rotating boxes, and all the other tricks used, you will lower the impulse to swarm, and if your lucky you may get the percentage down to 50% or less. But you will never stop the swarming.
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.
Unhealthy hives normally do not swarm...healthy one's do. So you are doing your job, and the bees are doing theirs.
