Manipulations Swarm Control
Avert the queen’s departure
Abridged version Dynamics Ground rules Methods
Basic Assessment: Give an elementary account of one method of swarm control
Swarming is the bees’ mode of reproduction. Half the bees and the queen leave to form a new colony. From a beekeeper’s perspective, losing bees in a swarm is tantamount to criminals fleeing the police. If the criminal’s car is far ahead, they may get away. To prevent this, the police must make a roadblock or roll a strip of spikes across the road that puncture the car’s tyres. The roadblock and spikes are like the manipulations beekeepers perform to prevent their bees from flying away.
Bees naturally reproduce by swarming, but it is the bête noire of beekeeping. Few bees mean little honey. This page describes some ways to prevent swarming when queen cells (QC) are present. Splits and Demaree are good methods. However, as a first step, many people learn the Pagden Artificial Swarm because that is what they’re taught on their association beginners practical course. That’s okay, start with that. Before that, I explain the principles behind swarming and its control. Note that swarm prevention is different; it describes methods to use before QC pop up.
Colony size — honey volume — Swarming
A colony has to be a specific size before it can make honey, which is also true of swarming, although swarming can arise because the bees are living in a small cavity (less than 40 litres). A colony needs a surplus of bees beyond those required to care for the brood, just as a family can only go on a foreign holiday when it earns considerably more than its childcare costs. In the graph below, I’ve depicted this transition with a red line. The accumulative area under each curve and above the red line in the main flow (when there are plenty of flowers) corresponds to how much honey a colony produces. There are five scenarios:
Colony population time series graph
Orange — where both portions of a Split are united for the main flow.
Green — Split.
Purple Swarm — If a large colony swarms in early April, there is hope of a small harvest.
Pale green — a portion of a split that has insufficient resources to recover or is ill.
Grey/black — no swarming or manipulation.
The graph illustrates what happens when the colony population (shown in thousands) dive bombs due to swarming, colony manipulation or poisoning. It takes a minimum of 21 + 7 days for an egg to be capable of becoming a forager; a month before mid-June. In the build-up, the colony re-invests its surplus into creating more bees, and by mid-June, it may have no stores and many hungry mouths to feed. If the main flow is late, they starve. A colony that swarms in July should still have enough bees to produce a surplus. Sometimes in England, with favourable weather in the spring, they produce a good spring honey crop too.
Colony dynamics and swarm control / swarm management
Please refer to Figure 1.
The red boxes indicate factors that can be adjusted to scupper the colony’s attempt to swarm, if only by a few days.
Sufficient brood
Sufficient foragers
Young bees
At least one queen cell
Presence of a queen.
Manipulations
The illustrations usually display the final position of the boxes.
Demanding - you must find the Q and reduce QC
Pagden Artificial swarm.+ Heddon
Simpler
Ground rules
1. Never kill a spare queen unless she heads an aggressive colony or is a drone layer. Put her in a small nuc with bees, stores and emerging brood (the inner aspect of an arc of brood or where bees are visibly emerging). She may be helpful later.
2. As far as possible, always leave the frames in the order you found them. Failing this, put brood centrally boarded by frames of pollen, comb, nectar, and stores. A box must contain a full complement of frames.
3. The parts of a split must be at least one meter apart, with entrances facing opposite directions.
4. Suit the manipulation to the situation. Early in the season, an artificial swarm or split are strong enough to block the swarming urge, but at the cost of setting the colony back a great deal. In July, such a robust manipulation would weaken the colony before winter. A Demaree is more appropriate.
6. If a portion lacks foragers, give it a frame of honey. After 24–48 hours, start feeding with syrup.
7. Put nucs in the shade.
8. After 48 hours, check that a nuc/hive that has moved away has enough bees.
9. If there are loads of QC at the outset, and you want to use some to perform splits, use a fat open or closed queen cell (depending on whom you talk to). The rationale for using an open cell is to ensure that you don’t choose a QC that is empty or dead, and it enables one to predict when the queen will emerge. If you use open cells, consider whether there are enough bees and pollen to provide the QC with sufficient nutrition. It may be wise to reduce the number of cells.
10. Manipulations require attention to detail. If a manipulation requires reducing QC to one, and you don’t, all your hard work will be undone.
12. I don't mean to insult your intelligence; plan what equipment you’ll need before you start. Usually, in addition to a nuc or new hive, it is helpful to have one or two empty boxes (to sort frames) and a couple of spare hive stands (to make lifting easier).
13. If a queen is removed from a hive, and you wish to re-introduce her a few days later, The emergency QC must be removed first. A bee’s short-term memory is less than 12 hours, so this cut-off should be safe.
14. Young queens, move fast and are called “runners”. You will be lucky to see one.`
15. Returning a queen to a hive — only release her in to the dark space between two frames. Do otherwise and she may fly. Destroy QC before you return her.
16. Bees are slow drawing wax on plastic frames in the spring, without a nectar flow. This can cause a block to expansion. Use drawn comb or wax foundation early in the year.
Having a marked queen is helpful when performing manipulations
Marking the queen
A young Q will run around, making it almost impossible to find her. But keep your marking pen to hand.
Marking involves dabbing a spot of paint on her thorax. I cover this in more detail elsewhere.
The syringe device is for catching the queen and marking her. The device with the portcullis is handy for transferring the queen (if you can’t handle her) into a travel/introduction cage.
Timing is critical when it comes to manipulations.
Thorne sells this little device. Turn the dial, and rather like an old-fashioned set-square for maths, you can read off what happens when.
Combine this with looking at a brood table.
How to do an Artificial swarm (AS) / The Pagden method
This is the most popular method around my way. It prevents swarming 100% IF DONE CORRECTLY.
The Q stays home, with no QC in a box of combs along with the supers. She must have some comb.
The brood is moved at least one metre away, with the entrance facing away from the home hive. Consequently, the foragers fly home.
The portion moved away must make a Q, so destroy all but one QC. But you may want to leave two:
When one QC is left, there is a risk that it dies. This is unlikely. If two remain, they may swarm on the first Q. However, if two QC are close together on a comb, and they look the same age, leaving two is less risky.
Received wisdom is that you leave a fat larva rather than a closed QC. The reasoning is misty. It may:
Reduce the chance that they will swarm on the first Q that emerges.
Increase the chance that the Q is from day four brood.
Establish that the closed QC will be alive when the cell is sealed, but bees won’t seal a dud QC.
When I did AS, I selected a nicely patterned, closed QC, and got away with it. Some closed QC look outwardly okay, but are empty. This will be a risk if many other QC are duds.
The part that is moved away has to make a new Q but has plenty of young bees.
You may hear of a modified artificial swarm called a Heddon. It is unnecessary but works like this: One week after the first manipulation, the “mobile home” portion is moved 180 degrees to the other side of the home position (where the swarm resides). This means more flyers boost the swarmed portion.
Feed the moved away part, as it has no foragers, The portion at the home position is not equipped to look after the queen or any brood. So this portion dwindles. The moved away part has no fresh pollen coming in. House bees are upgraded to become foragers, which are ineffective and die prematurely. Despite these caveats, a large colony copes well.
How to do a Split
The queen is placed in a nuc with 1 - 4 frames of mostly sealed brood. The nuc is moved away and placed in the shade.
The home colony is left to re-queen. It should make a decent Q as it has the full resources of the colony. At the outset reduce the QC to one open QC. After 6. - 7 days, cull any more QC that have formed. The new queen should lay with a bang.
A split performed vertically
B - 4 denotes all brood except 4 frames
4B four frames of brood
MB manipulation board
How to do the Wakeford (as described by Peter Patterson)
Remove the queen
Destroy all the QC and charged cups.
Seven days later, destroy all the QC except for one.
How to do a Demaree
This method works by separating the Q from the brood. It is simple and effective At the beginning, the Q on her frame, which contains no QC, goes at the bottom of a stack. The brood is placed at the top, separated from the bottom by at least two supers. Another super brood box can be placed above the top box. The consequence of this manipulation is that initially, the bottom box has no brood, few house bees, few foragers and no congestion. Once the brood is sealed most of the bees migrate to the bottom box.
A Demaree possible outcomes:
prevention — colonies are less likely to swarm after a single Demaree.
control
generating QC
making up nucs
strong colonies
two queen colonies
To achieve these outcomes a Demaree can be performed in three ways:
When there are swarm cells
When the colony is intending to swarm but shows no signs
For prevention, using a manipulation board instead of the top QE.
In the first two, after 6–7 days, it is critical to destroy the QC to thwart them swarming. Despite some QC being sealed after 5 days, waiting 6–7 days works okay. For prevention, culling the QC is unnecessary, and a manipulation board replaces the top QE.
If you are short of drawn super frames, that’s okay; use foundation. If there are more brood frames than will fit in one box, you have three options:
Up to 4 brood frames can be put in the upper super under the top brood box, but it is vital to remember this at the seven-day check.
Put up to 4 brood frames in the bottom box. This will reduce the power of the manipulation, but may prevent supersedure after the second cycle. Some beekeepers put two frames of brood in the bottom box routinely.
Use two brood boxes above the top QE. This is a great idea to generate quality queen cells as the extra space can be packed out with stores, and drawn super frames reduces the tendency for the top brood box to fill with stores.
Leave the whole caboodle for 21 to 25 days, depending on the presence of drone brood. If the manipulation is performed early in the build up stage, unwelcome stores in the top box aren’t such a problem.
Once set up, lift the roof occasionally to release drones.
Problems with the Demaree
Unless you provide an entrance, drones get trapped up top. If they can’t wait to be released, they prefer to kill themselves by getting their heads stuck in the QE, If they don’t fancy doing that, they die anyway,
You must ensure you must avoid putting some open brood or eggs in the supers.
The colony growth plateaus if it is done too early, with insufficient brood, in a cold hive.
It can create a humongous colony that is difficult to manage.
It is prudent, but not necessary, to find the queen.
It results in a high stack of boxes.
If, at the start, they are on the cusp of swarming, you won’t know; if you suspect this you’ll need to kill all the QC in the top box. That’s a standard Demaree.
If the bottom box does not have much drawn comb, the queen will not lay with a bang.
It is not a swarming clamp. Swarm preparations can arise towards the end of the manipulation.
Theoretically, the bottom box may become congested. A queen can fill a box with brood in 2–5 weeks. Mine generally lay 5 frames in 3 weeks (they need at lest seven frames before I would consider repeating the manipulation).
Increased brood can result in dangerous varroa levels. Consider doing a spring treatment.
When using a manipulation board, they may not produce QC in the top box.
A queen reared in April may fail to mate adequately.
You’ll need space around the hive since it involves making a new brood box, a box for the queen. You’ll need piles of fresh drawn and undrawn comb, stores, box for old comb, brood frames, a manipulation board, and possibly a new floor, and a clean queen excluder.
A step-by-step guide:
For prevention (reiteration — see above)
Start at least two weeks before your colonies are prone to swarm (do it in late March or early April in Surrey)
Hopefully your queen is in her first year. She needs drawn comb in the bottom box. Check that there are no QC on her frame. Alternatively, shake her (and all the bees) in to the bottom box. Use an empty box as a funnel; spray its inner surface with water to stop the bees climbing.
At least two boxes of supers containing comb or foundation go above. Put a QE above and below the supers.
Brood goes up top with plenty of pollen and stores.
Destroy QC in the top box
Cull the QC in the top box after 6–7 days.
Repeat the manipulation after 28 days or when there is sufficient brood. Some say doing it once is enough.
Make sure varroa is under control before doing the manipulation.
How to do a Modified Snelgrove ii
Snelgrove’s method 2 is what earns him a bad name, as it is incredibly complicated. It involves multiple steps. opening and closing entrances on his board. Wally Shaw has distilled its essence and concocted an elegant manipulation. There is no need to find the queen at the start. At the second stage she is easier to find since the flying bees have left the brood box.
Put three frames of brood in a nuc and place this at the home position. The frames can be mostly sealed brood, must not contain any QC, but must contain some eggs. The “swarm” portion is moved away. Since the flying bees leave this portion, the workers break down all the QC.
After 9 days (12 days at the latest) destroy the QC in the nuc and immediately return the queen. She does not need to be protected.
Modified Snelgrove performed horizontally
Modified Snelgrove performed vertically
How to use a Swarm/Queen Trap
The Q is trapped beneath the excluder, stopping her from swarming. As the virgin queens emerge, they fight until only one or the old queen survives, Usually a virgin wins.
Leave the colony alone for 28 days. After this, reverse the entrances so that the Q can go out to mate.
If there is too much brood to fit in one box, put surplus frames above the Swarm Trap. Kill all the QC on these frames, and repeat after six days.
Paradise Honey extols this device as a revolutionary innovation. It isn’t. A Bailey board is much the same, but the Swarm Trap has an entrance reducer, not just an entrance.
With the previous Paradise trap design, the concept was that if the brood was in one box, the trap was left in the hive as a regular QE. But the device kept falling apart. The new design could be used in the same way, but it engenders gazillions of propolis on its undersurface.
To control swarming, when any QC arises no thought is required, shut the hive entrance and open the upper entrance. Job done. It works well and can be used as your sole method of swarm control. It’s quick and no fuss.
How to do a Split without finding the queen
The brood boxes are separated, with an equal amount of brood in each box. One box is left on the home site. Four days later, check which box has QC and which one has eggs.
Then move the box that contains eggs further away. Transfer some brood frames from the moved away portion to the home hive, so that the manipulation resembles a standard split.
The home portion has no queen and reacts as if it is in emergency mode. However, you can never be sure with bees, so consider reducing the QC at the home portion.
Staddle stone - the Derek M
A bedsheet is drapped over an upturned brick. The hive and brood frames remain at the home position and placed on a hive stand.
A square piece of plywood is placed on top of the brick. Hence, my name for this manipulation.
Shake all the bees onto the sheet. The bees gather under the plywood except the flyers who return to the home hive.
Site a new hive and combs somewhere else in your apiary.
Remove the plywood and adherent bees and shake them into the fresh hive. Any remaining flyers return to the home position.
The final position is that the brood and fliers are at the home position, and the swarm containing the queen and young bees, just as nature intended. The QC at the home site must be culled except one.
Key:
fb flying bees
B brood
hb house bees
Q queen
How to use a Taranov board
This is an iteration of the Staddle stone method.
Prop a wooden ramp up towards the hive with its tip 10 cm or more from the hive landing board. The entrance must be at least 40 cm off the ground.
Throw all the bees onto the ramp. The flyers fly over the gap and return to the hive. The Q and house bees gather under the tip of the board.
The queen and the house bees are shaken into a new hive positioned elsewhere in your apiary. Even better, take it to another apiary. In the absence of the queen and young bees, those at the home position should have a reduced desire to swarm. But, Cull the QC in the normal way.
I’ve only tried this once and I failed. Look on YouTube and see that other people do too. Taranov described suspending the ramp with a rope. Perhaps they could be encouraged to cluster further back from the tip of the ramp. Here is a video from someone who was successful, although I think it was a miracle that he was.
Other methods
Horsley board
This is a simple alternative to Snelgrove’s method. It has a complicated door mechanism. Learn more:
Brown’s board
This has a mechanism to reveal the QE by pulling a thread (which dangles around and gets in the way). It is easier to open the hive.
Wakeford
Remove the Q. So long as there are eggs, destroy all the QC and eggs in cups. Seven days later, cull all the QC except one. Learn more:
Summary
Swarming: there are QC and the queen is present and there are plenty of bees.
If you can’t find the queen then finding eggs is second best (this is when dark foundation is exceptionally useful - if there are eggs you can find them. With wax foundation, you’re guessing). However, the presence of eggs only makes swarming more likely than an emergency.
Swarmed: the colony has lost most of its bees.
Emergency: There definitely is no queen. It is crucial to know she is not there, this is where marking your Qs is valuable. If you find loads of sealed QC and there are plenty of bees, the queen may be about to swarm, but an emergency is more likely.
Supersedure:
There are three QC. However, there may be four, I’ve even heard five can arise. Bees don’t read the books and our world is becoming topsy-turvy. However, three or less absolutely indicates supersedure, especially if one QC is on the face of a frame.
To make a little sense of things refer to a swarm calendar
Your easiest swarm control options
Queen trap: this is particularly useful as you don’t have to find the queen or know whether it is a swarming or emergency scenario. It works well, but it is not mainstream. If you haven’t Paradise hives make a simple board with an upper entrance and a 10 cm square hole in the middle, obscured by a QE
To generate a new queen, you’ll need to do a split or an artificial swarm. A Pagden is popular, but if you miss a QC you're a goner. A simple split, or a Modified Snelgrove Two, are far easier.
A Demaree is suitable in early spring or late summer because it does not cause too much disruption.
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