Swarming and Increase
A swarm is not a disaster, it is reproduction. When a colony runs out of room it raises new queens along the bottom of the frames, and on the day the first of those cells is capped, the old queen leaves with about half the workforce. A queen cell goes from egg to capped in eight or nine days. That single number is why beekeepers inspect every seven days in spring.
- Reproduction, not disaster
- The four triggers
- Swarm cells and supersedure cells
- Egg to capped in eight or nine days
- Why seven days
- Reading the signs
- Give them room first
- Cutting cells is not a plan
- Pagden's artificial swarm
- The Demaree method
- The nucleus split
- The bait hive
- After the swarm
- Growing an apiary for nothing
- Laying room is not storage