Spot the signs, stop the swarm

Swarms of bees have a reputation for being aggressive and dangerous. But the truth is, swarming is a completely normal part of bee behaviour – and bees are actually at their most docile and calm when they’re in swarm mode.

Bees swarm when they outgrow their hive space or need more food supplies. Around half the colony will leave. To keep your colonies strong – and maximise the amount of honey you can harvest – it’s better to prevent a swarm if you can.

Want to know more? Watch our internationally-renowned honeybee scientist, Dr Mark Goodwin, explain the science behind swarming – or read on for more detail.

Why do bee hives swarm?

Swarming is part of bees’ natural reproduction, so there’s a huge incentive for a colony to swarm every year. This instinct will usually only last about three weeks, so if you can get through that period, you can probably prevent a swarm.

Bees swarm in the spring when there’s a very light nectar flow. If there’s only a little bit of nectar, the bees sense that spring is coming which means an abundance of food – and they’ll swarm in search of it. But once there’s a significant nectar flow, they tend to start producing honey where they are.

Some years, it may feel like every colony you have wants to swarm. Other years you won’t get any swarming. But some factors increase your chances:

  • Nectar flow

If there’s a strong nectar flow early in spring, bees probably won’t swarm. This is hard to predict, which is why beekeepers need to be prepared.

  • Queen variety

Some varieties are more likely to swarm. Darker bees, sometimes called Carniola, are more likely to swarm. Pure and yellow Italian bees are much less likely.

  • Queen age

A queen under a year old is less likely to swarm than an older queen.

  • Space available

Bees are more likely to swarm when the hive is overcrowded. We assume this is because bees are getting less of the queen pheromone, and they’ll encourage the whole colony to swarm.

How to prevent your bee hive from swarming

You can’t always prevent a swarm – but here’s how to minimise the risk.

1. Inspect thoroughly

Go through your hives regularly to spot queen cells – swarm cells are a sure sign of a coming swarm, there are different types of queen bee cells

which you can read more about here. These oversized, peanut-shaped cells tend to cluster at the edges of a frame, so shake the bees off and inspect carefully. If you do this thoroughly in spring, you can deal with a swarm by splitting the hive or removing the cells, and often prevent a swarm altogether.

2. Manage your queens

Your colony is much less likely to swarm if you have no queens in your hives that are more than a year old. If you requeen in autumn, by spring they should be around six months old, making swarms unlikely. Check out our re-queening gear online today, and get ready to re-queen your colony to prevent swarming

3. Assess queen variety

As we mentioned before, darker bees are more likely to swarm. For the best chance at preventing swarming, choose yellow Italian bees.

4. Make sure colonies have enough room

Bees respond to overcrowding by starting to swarm, so keep tabs on the space available in your hive. Add extra boxes or supers to your hive as needed to enlarge the space. Use a queen excluder

above two brood boxes or keep the boxes open otherwise, so bees can move freely between frames and the queen has plenty of room to lay.

5. Make nucleus colonies by splitting your bee hives
This solution has been getting more and more common in New Zealand. When you create a nucleus colony in a nuc box, you take two or three frames of brood and bees out of the hive to reduce the numbers and weaken the colony, so they’re less likely to swarm – you can use these bees to start a new hive or return them to the original hive after the honey flow has started. The problem? A weakened colony will also produce less honey. If you remove too many bees at the wrong time, you could cause the same issues associated with a swarm – so use this tactic only if a swarm seems imminent or if you’d like to grow your number of hives - read more about bee hive splits here.

Keeping tabs on your swarms

As with almost everything in beekeeping, managing swarms is all about keeping a close eye on your bees and getting in early.

This could mean assessing the age and breed of your queen, inspecting your hives regularly, making sure colonies have enough room and even temporarily removing bees from their hives by creating a split. If you’re organised and ready to act, you should be able to prevent most swarms before they happen.

New to beekeeping? Check out Ecrotek’s blog for more tips and tricks on all things beekeeping.