The Swarm Box Cell Starter

The swarm box method is a reliable and efficient system for producing high-quality queen cells by harnessing the bees’ natural urge to rear queens under swarm conditions. It’s especially useful for small-scale queen producers or beekeepers who want to raise queens without disrupting full colonies. The method uses a temporary queenless unit, called a swarm box, to start queen cells on grafted larvae before transferring them to a finisher colony.

 

 

What Is a Swarm Box?

A swarm box is a specially prepared hive box — often a 5 frame deep nuc with extra ventilation at the bottom — densely packed with young nurse bees, frames of pollen and honey, and good ventilation. It contains no open brood or queen, which triggers the bees’ strong drive to raise new queens. By controlling the population and conditions inside, the beekeeper creates an ideal environment for starting grafted queen cells.

 

 

Setting Up the Swarm Box

  1. Gather nurse bees: Shake frames of bees from several strong colonies, focusing on frames of emerging brood where the bees are mostly young nurses. Be CERTAIN no to shake in a queen.

  2. Add resources: Place at least one frame of pollen and one of honey or feed syrup. NO open brood should be included — only food and empty comb for clustering.

  3. Provide ventilation: Use a screened bottom or ventilated cover to prevent overheating, since the box will be densely packed with bees.

  4. Keep it queenless: Double-check that no queen has been accidentally added.

 

 

Starting Grafted Queen Cells

After the swarm box has been queenless for about four to six hours, the bees’ emergency queen-rearing instinct is at its peak. At that point, introduce your cell bar frame containing grafted larvae (less than 24 hours old) into the center of the cluster. The bees will immediately begin feeding the larvae royal jelly and drawing queen cells.

Maintain the box in a shaded area with good airflow. If temperatures are high, drape a damp cloth or burlap over the top for humidity.

 

 

Finishing the Queen Cells

After 24 to 36 hours, remove the cell bar frame and transfer it to a finisher colony (a strong, queenright hive) above a queen excluder, or a cell-finishing unit prepared for that purpose. The finisher will continue feeding and capping the cells until they are ready for use or incubation.

 

 

Advantages of the Swarm Box Method

  • Produces well-started, well-fed queen cells consistently.

  • Avoids disturbing production hives during grafting cycles.

  • Allows controlled timing of graft acceptance.

  • Ideal for medium-scale queen breeders.