Swarm Cells? How often do you check?

[tbonekel]

I have a couple of hives who have built a few swarm cells on the bottom of a frame. They are open and clean. Nothing in them yet. They are pretty easy to check because they are in the upper deep and all I have to do is tilt it up. My question is how often would you check these in order to potentially prevent a swarm before it happens? Would once a week be enough?  In my mind, if I go in and I see something in that cell, or if it's already capped, then I will find the queen and do a split right then leaving the swarm cells in the old hive.

[iddee]

I have 3 hives in that condition. I have been checking them weekly. So far, all are still empty. I checked them today and will check again Tuesday or Wed. of next week.

[Perry]

I try to check every 10 days or so, just tipping them back like you describe. Anything unusual gets a more thorough exam. I also remove queen cups just to buy myself a day or so. I figure it takes them a day to build them before she lays anything in them so it made sense to me.

[ledifni]

If you do decide to split you should try a Taranov split and video it for us to watch   I've always wanted to try one myself, but my ladies don't seem to be in the swarming mood -- yet, anyway.

[tbonekel]

But, Perry, just to refresh my brain, queen cups are "usually" up on the frame, right? Therefore, it could be difficult to find these on a quick check. I'm sure they would most likely be on the middle 2 or 3 frames I guess.

Wow, led, I had to look that one up! I don't know if I am up to that yet, but it looks like a fun experiment. I can certainly see how the bees would think that they have swarmed.

[Perry]

I don't really worry about queen cups or cells on the face of comb, just along the bottom bars. If one of my hives decides it wants to supercede their queen, I just let them, I figure they know what they want better than I do. But if I find cups or cells along the bottom bars, I act.

[ledifni]

Wow, led, I had to look that one up! I don't know if I am up to that yet, but it looks like a fun experiment. I can certainly see how the bees would think that they have swarmed.

Yes it just strikes me a simple, elegant solution that uses the bees' instincts rather than attempting to force them to do something the beekeeper wants.  And being a programmer, I'm a huge fan of simple, elegant solutions to things

[LazyBkpr]

I prefer to check once a week.. as you and Perry said, tilt up the boxes and look at the bottom of the frames. A light puff of smoke will drive the bees up into the frames..  I look carefully, because I use a lot of foundation-less frames, so those queen cells might be UP above the bottom bars on some frames..  It still isnt that hard to do if you clear the bees away.
   A swarm cell can be capped in nine days.. if you check your hives every two weeks, your going to lose your queen and half your bees between those checks.  If you plain do NOT have time to check every week, it is understandable, but be ready to lose a few swarms.
   And remember, having a hive SWARM is way better than having a hive DIE!

[Jen]

Tbone "But, Perry, just to refresh my brain, queen cups are "usually" up on the frame, right? Therefore, it could be difficult to find these on a quick check.
 
     After checking hives last year every week, I learned that queen cups can be anywhere, but in my hives they build several of them along the bottom bar of the frame, the upper edge, not the bottom edge. I watch those like a hawk. But if there is cups up on the middle of the foundation or higher, I consider that a supercedure cell, and leave them alone.

     And by the way, I checked my mother hive the way you suggested by pulling the hive box towards myself, then tilting up to look for swarm cells. I did find the one. Thanks for chiming in