How to stop Swarming

The dates mentioned refer to beekeeping in the UK but the methods should work anywhere. To understand how to prevent swarming it is important to understand the reasons why bees swarm and the triggers that cause it.

There is a popular saying in the UK dating back from the 17th century:
A swarm in May is worth a load of hay;
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon;
But a swarm in July is not worth a fly.

The moral of the story being that early swarms have more time to build up for the winter and thus have a better survival rate. It also tells us that the busiest month for swarming in the UK is May and June, if the spring has been warm then it may creep into the back end of April.

Giving Space

When the queen runs out of room to lay it triggers an impulse to swarm so to prevent this it's a case of making sure they always have enough space. During your spring and summer inspections check that there are cells available for her to lay.
You may need to add a second brood box, particularly if you are on a BS national standard box or have a prolific queen. If there is a nectar flow on be sure there's plenty of space in the supers or you risk the brood box filling up with nectar, reducing the space for the queen to lay.

A note on foundation - If the additional boxes you add to give space aren't drawn comb then it doesn't really count as additional space immediately until the cells are drawn out. If you are just starting out, you're unlikely to have drawn comb and probably have a young queen raring to go which increases the odds of swarming.

Additional note - Don't go over the top adding too much space, as a rule of thumb add an additional super when there are bees working 8 frames of the existing super (or brood box).

The Artificial Swarm

During your inspections if you see queen cells the bees have decided they want to swarm, it's difficult to change their mind at this point. You can knock down the queen cells in the hope that it stops then but in most cases all you're doing is buying yourself a bit more time and worse case they swarm anyway.

An artificial swarm works be removing the queen and bunch of bees to a new box replicating what would happen during an actual swarm. The obvious advantages here is that you don't lose your queen along with a considerable number of bees and don't cause a nuisance to anyone living nearby.

1. Find the queen, if you have queen cage put her in that while you do the rest of the manipulation.
2. There are likely to be multiple queen cells over several frames, often they're well hidden. Identify one queen cell to keep, remembering to be very careful not to shake it or damage it.
3. Destroy the additional queen cells. If you leave more than one then one of two things are likely to happen. Either the first queen will emerge then kill any other cells that haven't emerged/fight any other newly emerged queens or you'll get a cast swarm which means loosing a significant number off bees and potentially causing a nuisance to someone else.
4. Transfer 3 or 4 frames into the nuc, choose frames with some eggs, brood and stores. It's especially important to make sure there are no queen cells on these frames. By shaking the bees into the nuc box you're less likely to miss cells hidden under the bees.
5. Shake some additional bees into the nuc, remember the older flying bees will return to the original hive.
6. Release the queen onto a frame in the nuc before moving the nuc to it's new location.

You need to stop inspecting the original box until the queen has had time to emerge, mate and start laying. Refer to the queen rearing calendar to get an idea on timeframes.

The Preemptive Demaree Method

This method works really well at preventing swarming and maximizing the honey crop. The only downsides are that you end up with huge hives! You use the Demaree method to manage the space in the brood area, giving the queen room to lay and thus discouraging the swarming impulse.

It's known as the preemptive damaree as you want to do this before the bees start creating swarm cells at which point it's probably too late to do this method. I have done it after this point without the bees swarming but you run a higher risk of swarming once they've reached that point.

Once the brood box starts getting full and you see drones cells then you can start with this method.

1. Add a new box with foundation or drawn comb along with a frame or two from the existing brood box and importantly the queen. This box goes directly above the floor.
2. A queen excluder is placed above the new box to stop the queen moving higher up in the hive. Next add one or more supers, these may have already been on the hive or additions.
3. Add the old brood box to the top containing the frames mostly full of eggs, larvae and capped brood. This arrangement encourages the nurse bees to move up and care for the brood, reducing the density of bees in the lower box and thereby lowering the swarming impulse.
4. Important - The bees in the top box will try and raise queen cells from the eggs/young larvae, you must come back an knock these down being extra careful not to miss any. If you do they will swarm.

You can keep adding supers below the top box as and when the bees need it, the same as you would normally do. If the bottom brood box starts getting full you can keep swapping frames with the top box to give the queen more space in the brood box.

This method is effective because it mimics the conditions of a swarm without the bees actually leaving the hive. By separating the queen from a large portion of the brood, it reduces the congestion that triggers swarming. Additionally, it allows for continued honey production and brood rearing, which are essential for a healthy and productive hive.

Final warning - These hives will get really tall and can produce huge amounts of honey so be prepared to have to lift heavy boxes when inspecting the hive.

Further information

There are some particularly good YouTube videos that show these methods in practice.

Artificial Swarms Part 1 / Part 2 - Stuart Spinks from the Norfolk Honey Company

Artificial Swarms - Richard Noel

Artificial Swarms - Gwenyn Gruffydd

Demaree Method - North Hearts Beekeepers Association

Demaree Method - Black Mountain Honey