In early 2011 we will be offfering a unique anti-swarming system for our Bee Box hives. The system works by closing the normal lower entrance and opening a new entrance above the queen excluder. Configured like this the returning foragers can go straight up into the supers and only the bees feeding the brood chamber will go down into the brood chamber. This significantly reduces congestion and minimizes the amount of nectar dropped in the brood frames by the foragers, ensuring the queen always has plenty of room to lay.
The presence of the queen excluder prevents the queen leaving with the prime swarm but unlike swarm control with say a clipped queen, the queen is not lost and a prime swarm will return to the hive after a short time – typically 20 minutes but sometime significantly less.
Experience of this system over the past 12 years in Finland on approximately 1500 colonies has shown the system does not interfere with the normal working of the hive and if anything colonies with this system in place do at least as well and possibly better than colonies without it. This is believed to be a consequence of the diversion of most of the foragers straight up into the supers and keeping them away from the brood chamber. No problems have been noted due to the inability of drones to escape from the hive. Of course if the drones are trapped they will not be available to mate with new queens but we do not see this as a disadvantage. In a small apiary this will reduce in-breeding and give the beekeeper more flexibility to choose which drones mate with new queens.
The system is left in place for 3 to 4 weeks and then the lower entrance is re-opened and the upper entrance closed. At this point the hive may contain the original queen, with all queen cells torn down, a new queen who needs to mate or both the old and new queen present together (supercesation). Depending on what has taken place the system can be left unused until new queen cells are seen. However, after a new queen has mated and started to lay the system can be used again and the cycle repeated.
The system will be ideal for beekeepers who want to go on holiday during the swarming season but it will also be equally attractive to the beefarmer because used correctly no swarms will be lost and productivity will be maximised.
The first picture shows the system in place with lower entrance closed and upper entrance open. The smaller second picture shows this reversed, with the lower entrance open and the upper closed. These pictures also show the hive entrance reducers which will be available separately. Used one way they close off the entrance and when inverted they reduce the entrance hight down to a single bee space. This narrow gap prevents mice entering the hive and improves the ability of the bees to defend their colony.