Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[joshrobs]

So this conventional beekeeper guy I know split 3 of his 4 hives (Nationals) in May or June, but he didn't have time to split the last of them so he put a second brood box on it in the hope they'd not swarm. Well, that hive has thrown off swarm after swarm after swarm since, and I had a look in there with him the other day and there were 3-4 swarm cells with larva in so they're still trying to swarm. The thing is, the only reason I know for bees swarming is that the queen has nowhere to lay: either there's no space for brood, or there's a honey barrier, but neither of those things seemed to be happening. If anything the hive looked empty: the brood nest was only in the top brood box and it was pretty small too, and they had empty frames in the supers they weren't doing anything with. I know this isn't a natural beekeeping scenario but I'm really curious, I want to know what's happening!

[Barbara]

It is hard to comment on that particular case without seeing it but there is also a primitive urge to reproduce and that has a genetic element in that some bees will be more predisposed to swarming than others. Also, bees often do not recognise the space below their brood nest as an opportunity to expand unless it is an open space ie devoid of frames or you move a frame or two with brood on it into the bottom box, to encourage them to expand into it, so overcrowding can still be a factor after a box has been nadired like that..... I think it is sometimes referred to as false floor syndrome where the bees view the top bars of the frames in the box below as the floor of their cavity.

The colony will of course now be severely depleted if it has swarmed multiple times and depending upon when those swarms emerged.... I would assume June and maybe early July..... it is possible that the queen cells you are currently seeing are supercedure rather than swarm cells in a bid to replace a poor virgin queen that they were left with after swarming.