How do beekeepers reduce the chance that a colony will swarm?

Beekeepers can reduce the likelihood of a colony swarming by managing the hive space to accommodate the growing population and ensuring the queen has sufficient room to lay eggs.12

Swarming typically occurs when a colony becomes overcrowded and lacks enough cells for the queen to lay eggs. To prevent this, beekeepers perform the following manipulations:1

• Adding Supers: As the colony size increases in the spring, beekeepers add more supers—boxes of combs—to provide necessary space for the expanding cluster and broodnest.2
• Managing Comb Placement: Beekeepers can manipulate the combs to encourage the queen to expand her egg-laying area upward. This is achieved by placing empty combs or combs with brood ready to emerge at the top of the cluster, while moving combs containing eggs or young brood toward the lower part of the broodnest.2

By ensuring the queen has continuous room to expand her laying area, the beekeeper helps the colony reach its peak population of 50,000 to 60,000 bees in time for the major nectar flow without triggering the natural swarming instinct.2