Why Is My New Hive Swarming?

It’s been reported by a handful of people in our county and a bit south of us that their new colony they just installed from a Nuc this year swarmed! I witnessed myself a healthy hive with what seemed like plenty of room building a swarm queen cell in one of our club member’s apiary. So why could this be happening? A few thoughts:

Making room for your Colony– The usual process for a new hive is that when 7-8 frames are fully drawn out with comb and packed with either nectar or brood, it’s time to add a second box above them. But one does not simply put a box above them with 10 empty frames with only foundation. You must encourage the bees to move up into the box and acknowledge the space, or they will still think they are running out of space and need to swarm. How do you encourage them to move? By using the Pyramid Technique of moving frames from the bottom box. Here is a link describing this method in detail at Honey Bee Suite.

Comb is better than Foundation – Anytime you have empty drawn comb from previous years always use it. The bees won’t see an empty box as more room. Because they can’t store nectar in it and the queen can’t lay in it. So even with space, they will still swarm. If you don’t have drawn comb to give them, you should keep feeding the bees 1:1 sugar water. The only time you’ll stop feeding for a starter colony is if they stop taking the sugar water and its just molding, or if you’ve reached the desired number of boxes for brood and now you are ready to put on Honey Supers. We don’t want sugar water honey. Blech!

Assess the Colony Health – Believe it or not, bees will misread the queues from its state of health and think they need to swarm when actually, something is wrong with the hive. The queen could be failing and not laying enough healthy brood to keep up brood pheromones. They could be starving because of excessive rain or excessive dearth of good nectar. They could be agitated because they are being harassed by wildlife causing them to want to leave (abscond) rather than a multiplication swarm. Ask your mentor or reach out to Angela or Ingvar for help assessing a colony when you find Queen cells to understand if it’s a supersedure or a swarm about to happen.

Do a Pre-emptive Split – If you find true swarm cells you can manufacture a swarm-like split that pacifies the bees need to swarm. This type of split can be seen in detail here called the Pagden Method

Have a Swarm Trap on your property or get help from a club member – You can keep an empty deep box on your property with attractant in it so if your bees swarm, they will go to your own box. If your bees swarm and are hanging on a limb and you need help retrieving them, send an email to [email protected] and she’ll get a club member out there to help you!