Preventing swarms by using the Demaree Method, an interesting alternative to dividing the hives.

"Swarming is the natural means of reproduction of the honeybee colony. Bees
swarm to insure their race will continue to survive. When bees swarm, they
divide an existing colony in two forming a new colony. For this to occur a new
queen must develop and the old queen leaves the hive with a large proportion
of bees in search of a new home to live and proliferate. The remaining bees
stay and wait for their new queen to emerge.
One of the best ways to prevent a bee colony from swarming is by the way of
the Demaree method. The method was devised by George Demaree and was
first explained in an article in the American Bee Journal in 1884. In 1892 he
again explained an improvement in his method. The objective is to separate
the unsealed brood and eggs from the queen. Brood goes above an excluder,
while the queen is below. This measure reduces overcrowding in the hive and
therefore the bees desire to swarm; and makes it possible to retain the total
colony population; and to keep honey production at a maximum. The
technique has the advantage of allowing a new queen to be raised as well."

Swarm Prevention By Demaree Method
Khalil Hamdan, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.

I was working the bees most of the day today and noticed that they were bringing in a lot of yellow pollen.  I don't know what that would be from this early in the year, but maybe it was red maple.  Just looking in the tops of the hives, it seemed like the bees were stronger (more numerous) now than a week ago.  Are they raising brood already?  It has been a very mild winter, and there seems to be a pollen flow.
Which brings me to this subject, preparing bees to make a honey crop.
All bullet points are from the gobeekeeping.com website.

• If the honey (nectar) flow is early -- such as black locust the beekeeper must have the hives built up strong as early as possible.   This may require feeding hives to stimulate brood production and the feeding of a pollen substitute.
• All hives of bees must be at their strongest to produce a good crop.   This is done by frequent inspection for good brood patterns  and the replacement of queens if necessary.  It also requires that the beekeeper is alert to bee diseases.  Any disease weakens a hive.
• It pays to have fewer strong colonies than many weak colonies.  Too often a beekeeper is in a hurry to increase hive numbers.  If a honey crop is expected, then the beekeeper might begin combining weak hives with hives that are fair but not strong.  One might also switch the location of a weak hive with a strong hive if the hive with the weak population has a good queen (one you have replaced just recently).
• If the beekeeper is wanting to increase the number of colonies he/she has, it would be better to take only one frame of bees and brood from a number of hives and build slowly rather than splitting all the hives at one time.   If the honey flow comes later in the year, splitting makes sense.
• The beekeeper must have a plan to prevent swarming.  The beekeeper must provide adequate space for brood production and honey storage.   A swarm defeats all the effort put into getting a hive of bees ready for the honey crop.
  
• http://www.gobeekeeping.com/LL%20lesson_eleven.htm
  

Not every bee you see is a bee.  Some are actually flies.  Others, of the stinging variety, are probably yellow-jackets, especially if they're coming at you from the ground.  Many people find themselves being attacked by "bees" while mowing the lawn or otherwise disturbing the ground.  These attackers are actually the yellow-jackets, and not bees at all.  In fact, unless you find yourself playing around in front of a beehive, you probably are not going to be stung by a honeybee.  The stinging culprit is most likely some other type of insect.

Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are my favorite lawn ornamental.  Here's why...
They're good for bees.
They're good for people.
They're good for your lawn.
They're good for your garden.
Oh, how I love to see a yard full of beautiful, yellow dandelion flowers!  They tell me that, "Spring is here and all is right with the world."
How boring is a long expanse of mono-green grass?  No color.  No life.  Nothing to look at.  Give me some wildflowers, please.  Give me some dandelions.

Step aside Viagra, the bees are taking your place. 
Royal jelly is an aphrodisiac that promotes fertility.  It also increases libido and balances hormonal problems.
Honey, also, is an aphrodisiac, thus the "honeymoon" following the wedding.
There's nothing new under the sun.  The ancients knew these secrets long before today's scientists rediscovered them.

Why do beekeepers use smoke to calm bees, and why does it seem to work? 
I had always been told that the bees, upon sensing smoke in the hive, would think that their tree was on fire and would gorge themselves with honey in preparation for departure.  Bees full of honey don't seem to be inclined to sting, which is helpful for the beekeeper.
However, another alternative theory came to mind the other day whilst I was working the bees without the aid of smoke.  Upon opening the occasional temperamental hive, a handful of ornery guard bees would pounce, and the powerful odor of ripe bananas would permeate the air.  This odor is the bees' alarm pheromone, and it is quite alarming for both the bees and the beekeeper.  I realized that while being very familiar with irritable bees and their odors, I had never noticed the odor quite as powerful as it was now.  It reminded me of the smell of goldenrod nectar near the beehives in the Fall, very strong and ripe.  And so it occurred to me that perhaps the odor is always present when opening angry hives, but the usual cloud of smoke accompanying the opening masks the presence of the odor from both the beekeeper and the bees.  The guard bees emit the alarm pheromone, but no one notices.
Meanwhile, those bees that we see gorging themselves on honey may just be cleaning up the mess we've made by opening the hive.
There are alternative methods of calming bees without the use of smoke.  No smoke, as mentioned above, works well with very gentle bees, but not so well with the rest of them.  I've tried spraying the bees with sugar water while working them, which worked well with gentle hives, but was next to useless with the mean hives. 

More evidence that no one really knows what they're doing.

"The more I studied beekeeping, the less I knew, until, finally, I knew nothing. But, even though I knew nothing, I still had plenty to unlearn. For we can never, and I do mean never, reiterate the ideals of the books, of history. How did Langstroth manage all his colonies without power tools? Especially when he was totally disabled for months and months. How did he do it? Simple again. He was crazy. Crazy people can do phenomenal things. The other side of insanity is genius.

I realized early on that if I followed the rules as written, I would fail. And how could anyone who knows better choose to fail? But it did take me a long time to figure that out. I started out just like everybody else, trying my best to go by the book.

It took me 20 years to get up the courage to sell my extractor, after it had taken me ten years to save up enough to buy it in the first place along with a truck with a shack on the back to serve as a portable extracting room. I was so stupid back then. I thought it was about honey. I’d read all the books, especially Ormand’s, especially the part where he says, “Honey is money.” I bought it hook, line, and sinker.

But don’t get me wrong. I love Ormand. He’s my friend. Acknowledged grand master of the game, third generation beekeeper, author of two great books on the subject, holder of the world’s record in the GUINESS BOOK OF RECORDS for the most honey produced by a single hive in a single season with a single queen, 404 pounds, a record that held from 1957 – 1963, when it was broken only with the use of multiple queens. Ormand’s true, single-queen record will most likely never be even seriously challenged. But he doesn’t keep bees anymore. The unthinkable happened. It was not that he got too old. He is very old, but he still works in carpentry. What happened was the mites wiped him out.

Ormand played by the rules. Bought the miticide and followed the directions. I bought the stuff too. But when I was handling it still sealed in foil, I could taste it in my gums, and it tasted toxic, so I didn’t use it. So my bees died. But Ormand’s bees died too. Besides, we were hearing reports from all around the nation that it was not working. But “they” were insisting that we use it anyway, the implication being if we didn’t use it, we were part of the problem. But if we did use it, our bees still died. Year after year, I didn’t use it. Year after year, I’d start new swarms in the spring, only to have them die off in the fall and early winter. I didn’t quit only because I couldn’t. Then we heard the miticide was outlawed in Scandinavia."

Bee Culture – July, 2001
Principles of Beekeeping Backwards
- Charles Martin Simon

1. Echium, Echium vulgare
2. Borage, Borago officinalis
3. Goldenrod, Solidago
4. Melissa, also called Lemon Balm, Melissa officinalis
5. Phacelia, Tansy, Phacelia tanacetifolia

This list is based on pounds of honey yielded per acre.
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