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• Snelgrove method Swarm Control

Snelgrove Method - Artificial Swarm

• Extra equipment required:
• Brood box
• Snelgrove Board
• Imagine a crown board with no holes in it.
• Imagine it has bee space above and blow the board.
• Each side has two little doors - one above and one below the board.
• Each door can be opened to let bees in and upstairs or downstairs.
• Brood frames with foundation or drawn comb


• Method

• 

• Remove roof and supers from busy hive.
• Move busy brood box and put to one side.
• Place new brood box in its place.

• 

• Find the Queen in the old box.
• Place the frame with Queen in new brood box.
• Check no queen cells on that frame.

• 

• Put back Queen excluder and supers on new brood box.
• On top of the supers put the Snelgrove board.
• All Snelgrove doors closed except upper one at front.
• Flying bees can return to the original brood box.
• Remove all sealed Queen cells in old brood.
• Reduce unsealed occupied Queen cells to just two.

• 

• Place old brood box on top of supers.
• Put crown board and roof above brood box.
• Nurse bees remain with the brood above the Snelgrove Board.
• Flying bees return to the new brood box containing the Queen.

• 

• After four days close the Snelgrove door, upper front.
• Open lower front entrance.
• Open upper left entrance.
• Returning bees come in at the front but go down.
• The original brood box is now less crowded.
• The new brood box has more working bees.
• After four days close the lower front entrance to prevent robbing.
• The new queen in the top brood box will soon start to lay.
• Her bees are using the upper left entrance.
• Once established you can:
• Separate the two parts to give two colonies.
• Reunite the two colonies.


• Advantages
• Does not require a complete new hive.
• Does not require extra space in apiary.
• You have persuaded the bees they swarmed - but you have lost none.


• Disadvantages
• You need to a Snelgrove Board.
• It is more complicated than the Pagden method.