Swarm Prevention Methods
by Leah Smith
Though swarming is a natural, colony-level reproductive process, it’s often viewed as beekeeper negligence. Learn swarm prevention methods so you don’t lose honeybees or potential hive products.
It’s unmistakable that “super-buzz” sound of too many honeybees… SWARMING! In the past, swarms were considered a sign of good beekeeping. In truth, they do indicate healthy colonies because only strong hives will cast swarms. However, most beekeepers see swarms that escape the bee yard as purely a loss of bees and, therefore, honey production and pollination services.
Why Fly?
Though swarming is a natural, colony-level reproductive process, it’s often viewed as beekeeper negligence. It may occur for a number of reasons including hive overheating, the presence of defective or unsuitable combs, or problems with the worker composition of the colony; however, a congested hive in spring — the swarming season — is the most common.
A crowded hive initiates various swarm triggers. Worker populations increase rapidly in spring, especially after minor honey flows. More bees means less space in the hive, but also more honey production, and therefore less space in the comb itself. When the broodnest can no longer expand, the queen will feel the need to swarm.
Periods of inclement weather may also “create” overcrowding by confining foragers to the hive, and the first sunny days that follow such weather will often be D-Day — as in Departure!
The Royal Touch
Queens affect swarming in other ways. A failing queen won’t produce the level of pheromone (indicating her “healthy” presence) needed to suppress a colony’s own natural swarming inclination; even the pheromone level from a healthy queen might not be enough in an overpopulated hive.
When swarming, the “old” queen will depart the colony with about half the workers, leaving behind a new queen. Queen cells (termed swarm cells during swarming season) are an unmistakable sign a swarm is on the way. They’re comparatively large structures which hang from the lower edge of frames.
As swarming is very queen-oriented, they’re the focus of most swarm avoidance techniques. Two-to-three-year-old queens are prone to swarming, so replacing them preemptively (sometimes from non-swarming stock) is one approach. Newly hatched queens have low swarming percentages for both the initial and subsequent years (as long as frame space is provided).
Bee Juggling?
As stated, springtime swarm prevention is about giving the queen ample broodnest room and the workers sufficient “living quarters.” But your approach is a matter of deciding how much labor you wish to put into your solution, and how many colonies you ultimately want — there might be a limit, you know!
Some beekeepers relieve crowding by shifting workers from a strong hive to a weak one, preventing the strong hive from swarming. Just be sure the weak hive is merely small and not diseased.
Winter clusters tend to be in the uppermost portion of their hives by spring, with the queen inclined to continue up. Empty space below may be ignored, so hive body reversing can help ensure available space is utilized.
Splitting a colony is a good way to make room for more honey and bees while avoiding a single, towering hive. One reconfiguring method is as follows: on a bottom board, place a hive body filled with drawn comb (so it’s ready to be used), shake all bees into the body, add a queen excluder, and place the hive body with the colony’s brood on top. Within a few hours, the nurse bees will have climbed to the broodnest; the queen remains below the excluder. Remove the broodnest for the second hive.
Now the parent hive will have no brood, a strong foraging force, and the original, laying queen. The other will have the broodnest and nurse bees, but no queen (and should be supplied with a ripe queen cell or a laying queen, either of which the colony will readily accept). Both colonies should receive a second hive body with some frames of honey and more room for expansion, and now neither is in a position to swarm.
The Demaree method of swarm prevention (named after George Demaree) is perhaps the most famous technique, and one that comes with options. It involves topping a colony with a hive body above the supers, and periodically moving full brood frames to the top body while placing empty, drawn comb into the center of the broodnest below to provide the queen with continued space.
The bees in the “top box” may raise their own queen, creating a nucleus colony. If a second queen is produced, you can create two hives, or you can maintain your colony as a two-queen hive. Or if no second queen is produced, you can choose to leave all boxes together or separate them and “queen” the second colony yourself. Decisions, decisions!
Swarm Happens!
Swarming has some bright spots. The hive is left with a young queen, isn’t likely to swarm the following year, and has better odds of surviving winter. As it will have constructed numerous swarm cells, the “spares” from that colony will be a source for requeening other hives (and are available for five to six days after the swarming). And if you capture and hive the swarm itself, you’ll retain all your bees and this new colony will also be less likely to swarm the following year.
Capturing your swarms isn’t as challenging as you may think. Swarm bees are engorged with honey and rather gentle. They don’t tend to leave their gathering point too rapidly, as the swarm must decide where to go first (giving you some time to act). Additionally, their instinct for defense is temporarily suspended with no hive — no one is on guard duty. Provided you can quickly assemble a hive (preferably with some frames of honey and already drawn comb) and close it up tight until the bees settle in, you’ll have yourself another colony … presto!
Nothing is straightforward. Remember, we want to discourage swarming because we don’t want to lose honeybees or potential hive products. But excessive hive manipulations can depress populations, create extra “tidying up” work for the bees, and will take your time, too. Do you need more bees, more honey, or more of your time free? And consider hive products. On our homestead, we have a quantity of pollen-laden, spring-blooming plants; and excess pollen fills comb space and encourages seismic brood production. With my pollen traps, I get a product I want and stop the bees “over-pollinating” the comb. I’m choosing pollen over brood (and more bees), but helping with swarm control, too.
It’s all about balancing your time and the products (and bees) you want.
Leah Smith is a freelance writer and home and market gardener. She works on her family’s farm in mid-Michigan called Nodding Thistle (certified organic 1984 to 2009, principally by Organic Growers of Michigan). A graduate of Michigan State University, she can be reached at noddingthistle@gmail.com.
Originally published in the March/April 2025 issue of Countryside and Small Stock Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.
