Which is better, bearding or swarming?
Let’s put it this way:
If your bees have swarmed, you’ve lost 50% of your honey yield, and you’re going to have to spend a lot of time searching for your missing queen.
With bearding, you’re just going to have a lot of bees out of the hive, and maybe getting in the way.
In other words, bearding doesn’t really matter, but swarming does.
So, let’s see how you can tell the difference between the two.
The Difference Between Bearding and Swarming
With bearding, when you go up to the hive, the bees on the front of it will run back inside.
With swarming, they’re all over the front of the hive, but they don’t look like they’re doing anything.
That’s because they’ve turned off all the sensors on their bellies, and they’re literally cooling the inside of the hive down by standing on it.
I don’t know about you, but if I were a bee, I wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation to fly on a hot day. And bees can’t resist it either. Well, the “bearding” that you see is all the bees who couldn’t resist, and they’re just having a good time in the sun.
It’s the same as when they do that little “orientation flight” too.
The bees who are bearding are the same bees who are going to be fanning the nectar to dry it out, and fanning the honey to evaporate the water from it.
It’s just that, when the sun’s out and it’s nice and hot, they’re going to be on the outside of the hive doing all that stuff, rather than on the inside of the hive.
That’s why I say that it doesn’t really matter if you see bees bearding, because they’re not going to be doing anything different to what they would be doing if they were on the inside of the hive.
Why Bees Swarm
Bees swarm because they’ve run out of room in their hive.
It’s not just that they don’t have enough foundation to build on, but they’re going to run out of space for their honey stores, and their queen is going to run out of space to lay her eggs.
I’m going to write another article about this, because there’s a lot to be said about it.
But for now, I just want to clarify what you can do about it.
What You Can Do About Bees Swarming
There are three things you can do about bees swarming.
-
You can place a new super on top of the old one, with a queen excluder in between. The bees will fill the old box with honey and the queen will be forced to lay her eggs in the new box. When the old box is completely full of honey, remove it, and place a new super on top with a queen excluder in between. Repeat this until the end of the season.
-
You can create a new brood box by placing a new brood box on top of the old one, with a queen excluder in between. The bees will fill the old box with honey and the queen will be forced to lay her eggs in the new box. When the old box is completely full of honey, remove it, and place a new brood box on top with a queen excluder in between. Repeat this until the end of the season. When the new brood box is completely full of honey, remove it, and place a new brood box on top with a queen excluder in between, and so on. If you do this, you’ll have one box each of brood and honey to harvest at the end of the season. This is the best method if you’re trying to increase the number of hives you have.
-
You can just let them go. After all, it’s really not the end of the world if you lose 50% of your honey yield. The bees know what they’re doing, and they’re a lot better at surviving than you might think. This is definitely the easiest method, but it’s also the least efficient.