Forms of Swarming In the world of bees, swarming is an important way for them to expand their population size. There are generally two forms of swarming: natural and artificial. Natural swarming is decided by the bees themselves; when they feel that the colony is strong enough, they will choose to swarm and form a new colony. Artificial swarming, on the other hand, is a swarming behavior guided and completed by beekeepers, usually before the bees swarm naturally, beekeepers will divide the colony into multiple colonies.
How to Perform Artificial Swarming In the process of artificial swarming, it is necessary to place the old queen and mature queen cells in two separate colonies to form new colonies. When lifting the frames, it is important to carefully check and ensure that the queen is not on the brood comb. The original hive should retain the queen, old worker bees, and brood frames, while the new colony is composed of the queen cell, new worker bees, and sealed brood frames. After swarming, some old worker bees will fly back to the original hive, while the new worker bees that have not recognized the nest will stay in the new colony.
How to Manage the Colony After Swarming The management of the colony after artificial swarming is also very important. First, we need to reward feed the colonies to encourage them to quickly recover from the strength lost due to swarming. Second, we should pay attention to balancing the strength of the two colonies to ensure they can develop healthily. Finally, we must strictly prevent the colonies from being invaded by pests and diseases, as the strength of the colonies after swarming is weaker, and once invaded by pests and diseases, it may lead to the failure of swarming.
