Swarm Season

Swarming is going to happen.

I truly believe that swarm prevention is one of the hottest topics in beekeeping. I still remember the early days of my beekeeping career when I would go to heroics to prevent my colonies from swarming; pinching swarm cells, clipping queens’ wings, splitting, you name it.

One particular year I went through and found swarm cells in just about all thirty-something hives I had at the time. Only afterwards did I realize that my colonies had already swarmed and that I had just eliminated the remaining bees’ chances of raising another one. Pretty dumb.

Now I don’t try to prevent or stop swarming. It’s literally the way a honey bee colony propagates itself. Imagine trying to prevent a human woman from giving birth. It’s a weird analogy but pretty accurate. The best thing to do in my opinion is to take advantage of swarm season and prepare for it.

Prepare for Swarming rather than Prevent it.

Accepting the inevitable does not have to mean accepting defeat. It’s what you do with something that matters. We can turn anything in life to our advantage if we choose to look at it through a different perspective.

So since swarming is going to happen then set up swarm traps…everywhere! Why not right?! Catch the very bees that swarmed from your equipment and allow the bees to do the splitting for you. Now you’ve got the swarm AND the colony they left to raise a new queen. You can even attract swarms from other locations to your apiary.

To help make it even easier for you I have put some great links to resources for you depending on the route you wanna go:

#1- Build your own trap using plans here.

#2- Watch how to build your own trap here.

#3- Forget all that and buy it here!

There are ways to hang swarm traps that make it more ideal for catching a swarm but in the end, hang the trap in a way that works best for you physically and safely. 

Here are some things to consider about the best places to hang your swarm traps!

Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom 😉. I want to hear from you!