Swarm
Lexikon
Swarming is the natural reproduction of the bee colony.
Swarming is the natural reproduction of the bee colony. In spring the colony grows strongly, and when lack of space, a surplus of nurse bees, and good weather come together, the workers build queen cells and the queen lays eggs in them. As soon as the first of these queen cells is capped, the old, mated queen leaves with a large part of the bees. This first swarm is called the prime swarm. It usually gathers as a cluster on a branch or fence post and moves on from there to its new home.
The parent colony stays behind in the hive with the brood, the queen cells, and the younger bees. Because a young queen must first emerge there, mate, and start laying, a broodless phase of several weeks follows. This break slows down the Varroa mite and is a good time for a treatment and for renewing the combs. It makes sense to inspect the colony that has swarmed only about three weeks after the swarm left; before that, the brood pattern tells you nothing.
For the beekeeper, an unnoticed swarm is still a problem. Without Varroa treatment a wild colony cannot survive in the long run, undetected swarms can spread diseases such as American foulbrood and bring mites back, the colony that has swarmed yields considerably less honey, and every so often the young queen is lost while being raised. On top of that comes trouble with the neighbors.
Prevention means timely expansion, young queens, bee strains with a low swarming tendency, and making splits early. Once swarming fever has broken out, the only things that help are regularly breaking out queen cells at intervals of seven to nine days or an anticipatory swarm, in which the beekeeper splits the colony himself.