🔵Swarm Control by Checkerboarding & a Pull Back

How we keep swarming from even starting!

If you find our content helpful and would like to greatly help us provide better content without spending a dime, consider trying a free trial with Audible. The free trial includes any free audiobook for you to download and listen to whenever & wherever you want! AND you get to keep it even if you cancel! Laurel and I chose Dr. Thomas Seeleys “The Honeybee Democracy” but there are several other beekeeping and gardening books that are great. Please use our link below to help us be able to focus more of our time on honeybee education, and set up a research yard in the future.

FTC Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored video. All opinions are genuinely my own. This description contains Amazon and Audible affiliate links and I earn a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. It doesn't cost you any extra. Thank you for your continued support to keep Tennessee's Bees going!

#Beekeeping #Beekeeper #Honeybee

[tomvanwirt]

What I like is that the videos are put up timely....not 2 weeks later when the current weather does not apply

[macsbees]

That queen is definitely the fastest moving queen I have ever seen, excellent video’s kamon.

[listening]

I’m so impressed you can tell which nectar like some wine connoisseur!

[larrygrover]

Your girls look awesome we just installed a swarm into our long Lang last Tuesday

[dsummerscm]

That colony looks awesome! Enjoy getting tips from you on managing the horizontal hives.

[donbearden]

K&L, thanks for the video! I don’t have a horizontal hive but this has assured me that I’ve been doing the right thing to keep swarming down! It’s a never ending battle this time of the year.

[davidpennington]

Another great video. That is a very nice hive.

[horizontalbees]

Kamon, I split all my horizontal hives this year. Took most of the winter honey from them. Thanks for helping others with you knowledge of these horizontal hives. What a great queen!!!!

[joetripp]

That's a great tidbit right there at the end about shaking the bees. The fighting foragers will fly back to the old hive and the nurse bees will march in like they own the place. Love it. I might have to try a horizontal or top bar hive one day just for fun.

[dinlas]

that is an amazing amount of brood this early!

[beebob]

Great video on the long hive. You might consider her for grafting . I spent the past two days in my hives. I'm located in southeastern Pennsylvania. I was equalizing my colonies and when I would shake frames there was nectar coming off.
I did find a swarm cell in one colony and I'll deal with that tomorrow morning. The queen was isolated to the bottom box with three frames of brood, empty comb, and food. She'll be moved tomorrow morning to prevent the swarm from taking place (I hope). There is only one swarm cell almost complete and one cell started.
The season has definitely arrived here and I'm hoping I have it ready to go.
I reduced all my colonies to a bottom box with three frames of brood and the queen. A queen excluder separating the upper boxes. Next Saturday will be ten days and I'll be moving the lower boxes with queens to the side and Queening the upper boxes.
I'm hoping this set up works and I can place the old queen up top and build it to a two queen system.
I can't lift heavy boxes anymore so it looks like cut comb this year.

[christophersublett]

I have 2 HZ hives that I built and I am heading into my 2nd season with them. I really enjoy keeping bees in them, but there are a few differences that you have to pay attention to as Kamon mentioned. I highly recommend giving a HZ hive a try in your apiary if you are thinking about it. Great video!!

[matttipling]

Thanks Kamon! We have a couple of second year long hives that look about the same. Looking forward to our honey yields this season.

[Jason-xupi]

"Look at all that bees" should be on a t-shirt lol

[tyrejoseph]

just wanted to say. thanks for everything. I had a double swarm happen today. Just started finishing up with the first swarn and looked up to see a swarm start to form and collect on a latter about 10 feet from the first swarm. Was able to handle it with some focus. Thank to your videos. awesome stuff man

[moray]

Thanks for the video! Hopefully, I'll be in better shape to prevent swarming next year. My goal was to make it through my 1st year and have my hive survive . . . which I achieved, but then lost 1/3 of the hive in a swarm. I just found out about checkerboarding 2 weeks before the swarm, but I suspect I didn't do everything correctly.

After the swarm, I ended up splitting the remaining hive, leaving 2-3 swarm cells in each hive, with maybe 50, 000 bees (8 - 9 deep frames) in the original hive and 20, 000 bees in the new hive. As you might suspect at this point, I hadn't really understood that my hive had over 100, 000 bees in 3 deeps after my unsuccessful checkerboarding attempt. I wish I could have kept them all, but hopefully, I'll do better next year.

I'm getting 3 VSH nucs in a month, so with luck I'll be going from 1 hive to 5 by June. You can be sure I'll be working my way through your videos, since you seem to be one of the genuinely successful honey focused beekeepers out there.

FWIW, I'm about to go look to see if you have a video explaining your use of horizontal Langstroth hives.

[lindseyhomesteadfarm]

It could be nectar from Nellie R Stevens holly trees. Here in Dandridge / Sevierville Tn. the Nellie R Stevens holly trees are in full bloom and are covered in honeybees. Great video.

[waynerichardson]

thanks for the information I had about giving up on the long hive but due to physical limitations I cannot work reg hives

[sherryortiz]

Just finished my long hive and ready to move my major mamma hive into it tomorrow. She's 2 years old and still slamming. I've raised many queens from her. Anyway gonna get started on my 2nd horizontal and then my 3rd as I'm down to my last 3 vertical hives. 5 top bar hives full with 2 empty in repair and then fill back up. Time to get nucs started to sell when I pull the queen cells from these last 2 verticals. State inspector comes next week.

[seedsandarrowsfrontier]

K&L you touch on it a little, but what does a normal frame layout look like for a horizontal hive? Do they still have the honey frames on the outside frames?