Queen Flight Swarm
Lexikon
The queen flight swarm is a form of swarm pre-emption: the beekeeper divides a colony in swarming mood themselves, instead of waiting for the swarm to issue.
The queen flight swarm is a form of swarm pre-emption: the beekeeper divides a colony in swarming mood themselves, instead of waiting for the swarm to issue. To do this, the colony in swarming mood is moved within the apiary, that is, shifted a few meters to the side or turned 180 degrees next to its original spot. A hive with wax foundation is placed at the old entrance location. The flying bees return to their accustomed spot and form a new unit there, the flight swarm. The flight swarm therefore always stands at the old spot, and both parts remain in the same apiary.
What makes the method a queen flight swarm is that the old queen, together with a brood comb, is hung into the hive at the old entrance location. The combination of the old queen and flying bees on empty wax foundation then corresponds almost exactly to a natural swarm. In the moved remainder colony, the young house bees, the brood and the swarm cells stay behind, and a new queen grows up there.
In practice this method needs flying weather, otherwise too few flying bees arrive at the old spot. A second apiary, on the other hand, is not necessary. The catch is that the queen has to be found, and with a strong colony in May that is the real work. In addition, an afterswarm risk remains in the remainder colony, because several queen cells sit there. They are therefore reduced to a single cell after a few days.
The queen flight swarm is to be distinguished from the flight swarm with queen cell. There, the queen stays in the moved remainder colony, and instead a comb with open queen cells goes into the flight swarm at the old spot. Where the queen is located is therefore the only, but decisive, distinguishing feature between the two methods.