swarming and swarm control
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Swarming and Swarm Control. Belfast and District Beekeepers March 2013 Alan Jones. Swarm in a Tree. All living things have only two priorities A To preserve their genes B To pass on their genes to the next generation - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Swarming
and Swarm Control
Belfast and District Beekeepers
March 2013
Alan Jones
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Swarm in a Tree
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All living things have only two priorities
A To preserve their genes
B To pass on their genes to the next generation
All living things develop or evolve strategies
to achieve these objectives
Success means the specie survives
Failure means extinction
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All living creatures react to stimuli
Stress is a danger to the survival of a specie
Swarming is one result of stress stimuli
So stress leads to Swarming (and Absconding)
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Triggers To Stress
a) Starvation (or threatened)
following end of nectar flow or bad weather
b) Congestion or overcrowding
c) Lack of queen substance
d) Heavy varroa infestation
e) Opulent or over powerful colony
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Triggers To Stress continuedf) Disease or poisoning
g) Queen too old – more than 3 years
h) Damaged queen
i) Isolation from queen
NB. Some sub-species (races) and strains
because of evolution or selection or breeding
are very sensitive to triggers
ie. swarmy bees
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Hive Yearly Population Growth
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When Bees Swarm
• Humans marry and have children• Children leave the home to get married• Bees are different• The old mother leaves with some daughters• This is called a SWARM• They set out to build a new colony• The old nest is left intact for the new Queen
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Impact of Swarming
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Swarm Prevention
is the avoidance of triggers giving rise to stressGood Husbandry is the Answer
Prevention is better than collecting swarms
Therefore:Use a non-swarmy strain
(avoid using swarms from an unknown source)Kill Queens in the Swarms you collect
and Replace with your own bred Queens
Use young queens – less than 3 years of age
Mark and Clip your Queens
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Swarm Prevention continued
Give plenty of room – in good time
Replace old comb or frames of food
with drawn comb or foundation in brood box so giving queen room to lay
Pre-empt the bees’ need for working space
So when bees are working on outer combs of brood box place a super on the hive
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Plus
• Stimulative fondant feed in early February
• Feed in Summer if necessary
• Avoid too much interference
• Treat regularly as and when necessary to control varroa
but only use effective treatments
Select or buy bees from non-swarmy strains
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Have spare equipment availablewhich is clean and serviceable
Check your hives every 7 to 9 days
Only every 9 days if the Queen is Clipped
Act as soon as queen cells are seen with eggs as otherwise the honey crop will be lost.
Be Prepared
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Swarm Controlwhen Queen cells have larvae in them
Queen Brood Foraging Bees
All swarm controls remove one of these
Move Queen on frame to nuc box
Move brood to new box
Move hive to one side
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a) Destroy or “knock-down” queen cells. Every cell must be found! Bees would probably make emergency queen cells And have swarmed before you return a week later
b) Split the colony – place Queen into nuc box
c) Artificial Swarm – remove brood to new box
NB a) Very occasionally works b) Often works c) Nearly always works
For both methods in August kill the old queen and unite the colonies if no increase required
•
Actions
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Remember•Swarms are natural but they should not happen so pre-empt them•Swarms are bad publicity - public panic and local authorities could ban bees•Swarms for increase – this was the ancient skep tradition•Increase by crude splits if no other skills or time (for queens over 3 years of age)•Spare equipment – you need spare hive or nucleus•Avoid using prolific bees (eg Italians) in a small hive (eg Nationals, WBCs)
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Prime Swarm = 1st swarm to leave
has nearly always the old queen
Cast = subsequent swarms with a virgin queen.
Late casts unlikely to survive the Winter
Unmanaged colonies may swarm themselves to death
Swarms spread bad genes, varroa and disease.
Swarms are not for beginners –
as there are usually old queens in swarms
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Supersedure occurs in about 10% of colonies
Always lookout for a second Queen
Old and new queen often present on same frame
SO NEW BEEKEEPERSBuy a Nucleus –
your confidence grows as the hive grows
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The cause of most swarms
can be found at home
when you look into a mirror
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It is beekeepers
who allow swarms.
SO
be a BEEKEEPER
NOT a keeper of bees
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THE
ARTIFICIAL SWARM
And a
Simple Method of
Raising New Queens
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•Start ( May/June) A
•Step 1A
•Step 2B A
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Go and have a cup of tea or coffee
at the same time
decide whether you want toincrease the number of your hives
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All the foraging bees have gone to BOnly nurse bees left in A
Look through box to find the Queen
Place her and frame she is on in Bmake sure there are no queen cells on this frame
Go through all frames in A and mark one with
an open queen cell with a big fat well fed grub
KNOCK DOWN ALL OTHER CELLS
Close hives and leave for a week
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•Step 3•B •A
•Step 4 •A •B
Leave A for 3 weeks before inspecting.
Add supers to B if necessary Unite in August keeping the queen from A
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Uniting Two Colonies
Squige the queen you do not want in BShe should be marked as she is the old one
Place a newspaper over the brood box BCut a few slits with your hive tool
Place brood box A with new queen on top
Set queen excluder on
Add all supers from both hives