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 #12355  by AdamD
 07 Jan 2022, 11:04
I was speaking to someone yesterday who want to put two colonies in an Omlet Beehaus which is on order (A plastic Dartington with two side-by side brood chambers).
The question arose as to what to do if queencells are found. The Beehaus is not designed to be dragged to one side to carry out an artificial swarm which is the classic swarm control technique (it would cause confusion to the non-swarmng colony in the other side in any case).
So what would be the suggestions for swarm control?
 #12358  by NigelP
 07 Jan 2022, 12:31
Cancel the order..... :D
They will probably have to purchase further Beehaus's or more conventional compatible hives/nucs to have any chance. I thought the general idea with the omlet was you only put one colony in and if they showed signs of swarming you moved frames around and added the divider to create 2 colonies and opened the second entrance. Then when things were sorted out you cull the unwanted queen and get them back to a single colony again.
 #12363  by AdamD
 09 Jan 2022, 09:08
Thanks Guys, I was sorta expecting that reply!

There is a reason why the Dartington didn't take off and at the association apiary, the token Dartington was usually used as a table and not much else, I recall.

Your point Nigel, that just one colony should be in there as standard makes sense. I guess one could slide the frames to the other side, put in the devider and put the queen back in the original side with food and foundation so the flyers join her.
(However I did this with an Abelo miniplus hive last summer which I wanted to split and pretty much all the bees returned home - young'uns as well, leaving brood to get cold and die. :cry: ).


Back to the original question; If you do have two colonies in the Omlet, the nucleus method of swarm control - where the queen, some brood and shaken in younger bees are taken away - is a viable option. Any other thoughts?
 #12367  by Patrick
 10 Jan 2022, 16:32
My experience of horizontal splits has not been much better Adam - I have frequently ended up with just one colony on one side anyway and wondered why I bothered.

If the Beehaus swarming strategy is based on single occupancy and then you want to use both parts as permanent colonies it seems to me that maybe the Beehaus is not really the hive you need. It seems designed for single colony beekeeping and as many of us might agree that is a rather precarious long term beekeeping principle in itself.

The Beehaus uses 14x12 Deeps so that would need two of those size nucs ( one for each of the two colonies because sure as eggs, they will both try to swarm at the same time. Not only is that pricey but using conventional equipment to enable the practical use of novel innovations seems slightly bonkers.

I am sure there are plenty of wacky swarming techniques that could work but how reliably is another matter, It has taken a lot of trial and many errors to find a system that I find works consistently and with minimal interruption to normal service. So I can certainly advise on what doesn't work..
 #12371  by AdamD
 12 Jan 2022, 13:35
"So I can certainly advise on what doesn't work.."

:lol: You have summed up beekeeping advice admirably! :lol: