Is allowing a swarm bad?

[Wandering Man]

I won't get my bees until late April, and I'm trying to get prepared.

Wife and I are starting with 2 hives, and 2 hives is all we want. I know that when a hive swarms it will take half the bees, a lot of honey, and my store-bought queen with it.

A slowdown in honey production won't bother me.

So, the question is: If I allow a swarm, and don't chase it down and capture it, am I adding to the world's population of bees?

Am I just creating a nuisance for someone else?

Or am I creating some other unintended consequence?

All ot this assumes that I can keep the hives running successfully.

[iddee]

Yes to all. The best is to keep a spare empty hive. Check the hives weekly during swarm season. When queen cells are found, remove the queen and 2 or 3 frames of brood into the empty hive. Add one frame of honey and pollen. Post a 5 frame nuc on Craig's list and the local club. Keep the empty hive and put the 5 frames in the buyer's box..Put 150.00 in your pocket and let the hive raise a new queen.

1..Avoids trouble with the neighbors.

2.. Gives you a fresh queen in your hive.

3.. Gives you money to buy more bee equip.

[LazyBkpr]

What Iddee said.
   I will add to that a little... Unless the bees you bought are excellent Hygenic bees that CAN survive on their own, the swarm will find a new home, in a neighbors eve, or barn, or old car etc...  they will grow, and MAY even swarm again, but within a year or two, the mites will build up, and eventually kill that hive. the bees will abandon the hive and find another place to go, possibly back to YOUR queen right hive, with a full load of Varroa mites clinging to them...  This is a worst case scenario, but is possible...
   None of us want our bees to swarm, we prefer to keep them all happy and healthy and making honey or more bees for us, but it DOES happen, and it WILL happen.
   When you first start out, information overload is HORRIBLE while you try to figure everything out.. Trust me, when I say, it will get better as you go! Before long, you will be looking forward to doing MORE with your bees, splitting them, making queens, building a queen castle etc, etc...   Go easy, and just do your best. Follow basic swarm prevention, and if they swarm, then they swarm...
   In the first year, a swarm is not likely.. the queen is young, her pheromone is strong. it is possible, just not likely, so try to relax and enjoy your bees the first year!

[Ray]

Your in Texas. That's sorta AHB Central. Swarms are suspect and destroyed (required by law?).
I try to prevent swarms as Iddee pointed out they are valuable.
I doubt that there is a knowledgeable Beek that can claim that they never lost a swarm. 
I set up swarm traps, it's cheap insurance.
Good luck with your hives.

[Wandering Man]

Thanks.

Yes to the information overload part. I'm sure your right, things will look more doable after I get the first two years behind me.

It's true that AHB still make the news now and then. I think some of the panic has died down, but the first response is probably to destroy the hive.

Its hard to gain perspective when you don't even have bees yet.

The way everything is already blooming has me worried that all of the blooms will be gone before my bees have a chance to get started.

[lazy shooter]

Yes, we live in AHB country in West Texas, and many beekeepers catch swarms.  Lborou and some of his pals catch swarms every year.  I have on untreated hive that has last five years.  They've never been tested or treated for mites or whatever.  There are many stories, and anecdotal evidence of feral bees inhabiting trees and buildings for years.  My next door neighbor has bees under the floor of an outbuilding that have been there eight years. 

Are swarms a bad thing?  I don't have a definitive answer, but everyone who has ever seen a swarm leave says it is an uplifting, wonder of the world event.  I'm quite sure that I lost one swarm last year.  It doesn't bother me in the least, but I'm neither a professional or a commercial beekeeper. 

lazy

 

[Jen]

I would like to add that I asked the same question 3 years ago when I first came on this forum. "Why not just let the swarm go? Let the bees do what bees do?"

I got back all the answers that are on this post. But another couple of things to consider is that there are mischievious little boys and girls out there that like to shoot swarms with bb guns and paint ball guns. And there are people who choose to kill the swarm with spray can insecticide like hornet spray with the long tube on the end so it will for sure reach a high up swarm.

Made sense to me to try and capture or lure a swarm, and either keep it, or give it away to another beekeeper, or like Iddee suggested, sell it and make a few bucks 

If you call your county ag department, they will provide you with a list of beekeepers in the area that will come to where your swarm is, and lure the swarm into a bee box and take it away for you.

[Ray4852]

 Its natures way to reproduce. Some people make a big deal about it.

[rwlaw]

Yes to all. The best is to keep a spare empty hive. Check the hives weekly during swarm season. When queen cells are found, remove the queen and 2 or 3 frames of brood into the empty hive. Add one frame of honey and pollen. Post a 5 frame nuc on Craig's list and the local club. Keep the empty hive and put the 5 frames in the buyer's box..Put 150.00 in your pocket and let the hive raise a new queen.

1..Avoids trouble with the neighbors.

2.. Gives you a fresh queen in your hive.

3.. Gives you money to buy more bee equip.

When I told my mentor that I had let a overwintered queen swarm his reply was "well you just took a hundred dollar bill and flushed down the toilet". That's the way I've looked at it ever since. I've sold nucs at just the material costs to folks who've needed a leg up (not too many times,LOL), just because I don't like the idea of a hundred dollar bill (mine) setting in a tree somewhere and not letting my livestock out of the fence.
Another thing to consider is, afterswarms can potentially cripple or kill a hive. Learn how to split at appropriate times and you'll thank yourself down the road.

[tbonekel]

Another thing you might try, depending on your personal health, is to continue to add deeps to your hive to see if you can keep it from swarming. This might be a good learning challenge to see if you can do it. It won't be easy. But beware of the weight of the boxes. Inspecting a hive that is three and four deeps high will be a tiresome event. Just a thought. I've never done it.

[Jen]

True Ray4852, but I don't have land where a swarm can find a nice log to live in for years. I live in a neighborhood of a couple hundred houses close together. The swarm is going to land in someone mailbox, or swing set, or porch light. The chances are pretty good that the owner of that swing set is going to kill that swarm with spray insecticide so his kids can go out and play.

[Lburou]

True Ray4852, but I don't have land where a swarm can find a nice log to live in for years. I live in a neighborhood of a couple hundred houses close together. The swarm is going to land in someone mailbox, or swing set, or porch light. The chances are pretty good that the owner of that swing set is going to kill that swarm with spray insecticide so his kids can go out and play.

Yes, then pick up the phone and complain about beekeepers posing a threat to the community. 

[Ray]

Some more examples of how Bee Keeping variables effect the advice. My area is fairly rural (yet) and my close neighbors enjoy my golden bribery. The area also has large tracts of woods. There's always the fear of a catastrophe, along with the legal entanglements, but the other option is to...... take up knitting? Packages and established hives can abscond and that can cause issues. Dearths can put large numbers of bees in the neighbors flowers and hummingbird feeders. Foragers working the neighbors pools or birdbaths are another problem.

[lazy shooter]

As a qualifier, my bees live in rural America.  They are one-half of a mile from the nearest home, and they are surrounded by hundreds of acres of pastures, fence rows, woods and in general lots of native habitat for bees.

[Ray4852]

 It takes one neighbor to make a complaint. One more complaint your zoning officer will tell you to get  your bees out. I'm with lazy. We think alike. I live in the country too. 

[Ray4852]

I have 4 hives now with 3 deeps with slatted racks. I need about 4 supers to prevent swarming.  I might have up to 80 thousands bees to deal with. Its a lot of work. Great way to make nucs and collect a lot of honey. One big problem with 3 deeps. My hives turn into a mite factory.

[CBT]

What's your opinion of the slatted racks Ray

[Wandering Man]

As a qualifier, my bees live in rural America.  They are one-half of a mile from the nearest home, and they are surrounded by hundreds of acres of pastures, fence rows, woods and in general lots of native habitat for bees.

I've only got a 1/4 acre lot but we are in a small residential area in the middle of several cattle ranches outside of the city.

Technically, we could have a lot of hives. But, we only want 2.

I've already got one daughter in law threatening to never visit again. She says bees make her itch (!?).

[Gypsi]

I like Iddee's solution. I sell off a couple of extra hives a year when I trap my own swarms, helps new beeks get going in the off season when nucs and packages are scarce, after spring is over, keeps me from feeding them during the summer dearth

[Ray4852]

What's your opinion of the slatted racks Ray

I'm happy with my slatted racks. They sit nicely on my screen bottom board to give me more than enough height to slide my varrox vaporizer in with no worry burning my brood frames. I think they help cut down my swarming a little but they wont stop swarming altogether. The only disadvantage using them. They can get a little expensive if you want to have them on all your hives. Dadant is the cheapest place you can buy them. Buy 5 for 13.30.