My Hive just swarmed

Swarms & Bee Catching
1

Not sure why. I was concerned that I might need to get a new queen since mine was 2 years old.

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=iANPW9pC3Jw

2

Many commercial queens are only good for about 2 years. I know that some cities in Texas require you to re-queen annually if you have an urban hive. This is partly to limit africanization, but also because it is rare for a queen to swarm in her first year, more common in the second, and very common in the third.

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3

Thank you for the information

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4

When I had 50+ hives I re-queened each year at the very beginning of Spring, I believe it reduced the chance of swarming. I ran 2 of 10 frame brood boxes and often had 2 or 3 supers for honey, extracting when the flow was on was a loosing battle and always catching up. Even then most of the outside was covered with bearding especially at night.
You may get a 3rd year from a good queen but you should check the brood box for any sign she is failing and re-queen if needed. What you are looking for is a drop off in brood and queen cells.
Frankly I would re-queen so eliminating the likelihood of further swarming, a new queen I think, makes for a more ‘content’ hive.
Regards

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5

Thanks Peter! I was expecting requeen but I was hoping to do my first harvest of the year from the Honeyflow first since it was nearly full.

6

Requeening should not have a big impact on your harvest prospects, if you buy a mated queen. If it did, the commercial guys would not consider it. :wink:

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7

indeed- and I’d suggest that is does have an impact- a positive one. Some commercial beekeppers here in SA routinely requeen all their hives- every year. This is an expensive thing to do when you have 1000 hives and I am sure they do it to increase productivity.

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8

Very true @Semaphore @BigBadBob @Dawn_SD from my past as a semi-commercial bee keeper all the guys requeened yearly in Spring. The lesson learned was that a new queen reduced the chance of swarming compared to an 2 year old queen and a new queen was a better egg layer, important when there was two deep brood boxes to maximize honey production.
Regards

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