How do I stop my honey bees swarming? Beekeepers face this question every year, normally in late Spring or early Summer. Swarming is how honey bees reproduce, so it is a natural and expected process. If we can prevent or control swarming we will make more honey.
Many very experienced beekeepers in the UK advocate using the Demaree Method of swarm prevention for people with a small number of hives. George Demaree (1832–1915) from Kentucky first published his approach in an article in the American Bee Journal in 1892. I love the fact that a […]
I love science. I’ve even got a chemistry degree, but don’t ask me about it because that was over thirty years ago. As soon as I left university, I went to the City to do accountancy. It’s hard to deny the importance of science in our lives. The […]
How to stop swarming? Answer: you can’t! At least not completely. However, beekeepers have to try to stop their bees swarming. If you lose swarms, you will not make as much honey as you could do. You can also catch swarms which is great fun. There’s a swarm […]
At some point, some colonies will make swarm preparations, and if the beekeeper wishes to keep his or her bees, and hopefully the lovely honey they will make, he or she needs to do something about it pretty quickly. Once queen cells are found in the hive then […]
How to prevent swarming? I previously wrote about some potential factors involved in the swarming of honey bees and why swarm prevention and control are so important for the beekeeper. The idea that we can prevent swarms is probably misguided; it is after all what bees are programmed […]
Before I get all technical on the beekeeping front I must share with you that I have just started a dog poo (or poop as our North American friends would say) wormery in my back yard – I’m a backyard wormer! The idea is that I establish a […]
Now that the days are getting longer bees in healthy colonies will have swarming on their minds, except that they don’t have minds, but you know what I mean. Obviously they have to build up to it, so it isn’t going to happen tomorrow, but the preparations will […]
