How do you stop honey bees swarming?

Answer 1

Generally yes. One or even a few wasps trying to get into a hive will easily be repelled -- and probably killed -- by the guard bees at the entrance. However, if there is a concerted attack by a lot of wasps at the same time they could overcome the guard bees and get in. If they do, they will kill as many bees as they can in order to get to the honey.

Answer 2

As one who has just had a hive of bees swarm today despite measures to try and prevent it I can vouch for the fact that if bees are determined to swarm it can be very difficult to stop them.

First, we must accept the fact that swarming is a perfectly natural process -- it is nature's way of reproducing a colony. So we need to recognize the factors that trigger swarming and the signs that preparations are being made.

Bees will make preparations to swarm when the colony is getting too crowded, so when inspecting a hive check to see if the queen has enough space to continue laying -- up to 2,000 eggs a day -- and that the workers have enough space to store the nectar and pollen they are bringing in to the hive.

When the colony is making preparations to swarm, one of the first signs will be the creation of queen cells. You can try removing the queen cells from the comb as they appear, but if you just keep doing this they will probably eventually swarm anyway. You can do this once or twice, but eventually you will need to bow to the inevitable and let them swarm, but in a controlled manner by splitting the colony yourself. Prepare another hive and transfer two frames of brood which contain queen cells together with the bees on the frames and reduce the number of queen cells to at most two good ones. Make sure you don't transfer the original queen with these frames. You will need to feed this new colony with sugar syrup because they won't have any foragers for a while. If you have a nucleus box, it may be better to use this for a while rather than a full hive.

Remove any and all remaining queen cells from the frames in the original hive and replace the frames you removed with new combs or foundation.

These measures should convince the colony it has swarmed but, as I have found out, they are not guaranteed.

Answer 3

You can't stop wasps from trying to get into the hive (I wish you could) but what you have to do is make sure the bees have the best chance of keeping the wasps out. Reduce the size of the hive entrance, if necessary reduce it down to the point where it is only a couple of bees wide. This gives the guard bees the best chance of intercepting any wasp brave enough to try to gain entry.
If the wasps are really persistent try fitting a piece of tubing about half an inch (13mm) in diameter and six inches (150mm) long to the hive entrance so the only way in or out is via the tube. The wasps will be reluctant to go through the tube with the bees in there.
If you have to severely restrict the entrance be aware that if the weather is hot the bees may be a little short on ventilation, so consider having two narrow entrances so the bees can circulate air.
Check the hive, and make sure there are no other places where wasps can gain entry, for example where hive parts are not fitting closely together, through a knot hole, or a gap around the roof.