Events
The Pagden Method of Swarm Control
Variations and Other uses
Introduction
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After mastering the basic technique of Pagden Swarm Control, beekeepers can then learn -
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how to balance the population of bees in the two colonies
how to use the technique to make colony increases
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Colony Balancing
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As the colony in the original brood box will be a larger colony than in the artificial swarm box, the object of this manipulation is to "bleed" bees from the original brood box to bolster the population in the artificial swarm.
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STEP 1
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After 6 or 7 days, move the original colony to the other side of the artificial swarm.
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New foraging bees from the original brood box will be unable to locate their hive and will "drift" to the artificial swarm colony. This increases the population of bees in the artificial swarm.
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If necessary, the manipulation can be repeated after a further 6 or 7 days by moving the original brood box to the other side of the artificial swarm.
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Making Colony Increase
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When a beekeeper wishes to increase their number of colonies, one of the many methods available is to perform a Pagden Artificial Swarm Control as described here. This process will cause the bees in the original brood box to create emergency queen cells from newly hatched larvae. These emergency queen cells are NOT swarm cells and, like supercedure cells, will normally be found on the face of the brood comb instead of at the sides or the bottom.
The beekeeper should NOT interfere with queen cells that are identified as emergency or supercedure cells. Remember - the bees have created them for their own reasons and will likely be due to a missing queen; a dead queen; a queen killed by accident or a failing queen.
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