SWAEMING. 



437 



SWARMING. 



its force. So he strengthens uyt every 

 medinm group colony by drawing a brood- 

 section from each of the light group ; for it 

 should be stated that the medium and light 

 class are equal in number, or at least they 

 are made so; and, contrary to what many 

 would suppose, the queen in the upper 

 brood-section that was given to the medium- 

 group colony will go on with her egg-laying, 

 and in a comparatively short time the two 

 queens in the colony so treated will have a 

 larger force of bees for the harvest than the 

 strong colonies in the group first mentioned. 



As soon as a little honey begins to come 

 in he puts an extracting-super, with a perfo- 

 rated zinc honey-board underneath, on top 

 of each of the strong colonies having one 

 queen, and likewise he gives an extracting- 

 super to each of the triple-deckers, as we 

 shall call them, containing two queens. The 

 object of this is to get the bees in the habit 

 of going above, and to discourage any tend- 

 ency on the part of the bees to store in the 

 brood-sections ; for it is a basic principle of 

 the Hand system to have each brood-section 

 jammed full of brood in various stages of 

 development, so that, when the honey does 

 come, it must go into the supers. 



As soon as the honey-flow starts up brisk- 

 ly, he is ready to put on the comb-honey su- 

 pers, containing sections partly drawn out 

 during fruit-bloom. The extracting-super 

 on each of the triple-decker two-queen colo- 

 nies is changed to the bottom of the same 

 stand— that is, placed between the bottom- 

 board and the lower brood-section. The top 

 brood-section with its queen is now given to 

 one of the one-brood-section nuclei. The 

 super of partly drawn sections being placed 

 between tlie two remaining brood-sections; 

 after, the queen is driven into the lower sec- 

 tion and there confined by a perforated zinc 

 honey-board. All the other two-queen triple- 

 deckers are treated in precisely the same 

 way. 



Mr. Hand explains that the honey in the 

 extracting-super next to the bottom-board 

 will be removed l)y the bees and put into the 

 comb-honey super, that being the only place 

 for it. This starts work in the sections im- 

 mediately—an important factor in swarm 

 control. When work is nicely begun in this, 

 auotlier super of sections is put on top of the 

 first one with the other brood section still on 

 top of the whole. This manipulation breaks 

 up all tendency to swarm , and the bees go on 

 merrily storing honey. 



The first-mentioned group, that consisted 

 of strong colonies having one queen each, is 



now given another extracting-super, one to 

 each hive, the sau e being placed under the 

 first one given ; and at the same time each 

 of the nuclei to which was given a good 

 brood section from the two-queen hives is 

 given a super of extracting- combs. 



It will be observed that Mr. Hand runs 

 for both comb and extracted honey. The 

 hives being all in divisible sections it 

 takes but a few moments to peiform these 

 manipulations, as there is no handling of 

 frames. 



The principle of swarm control comes in 

 right here: The bees of all the colonies 

 start going above into extracting-supers, 

 which they enter without hesitation. When 

 they get to work nicely in these they are 

 given a comb-honey super, as explained un- 

 der the general subject of Comb Honey. 

 See the Barber and Townsend methods. 

 But Mr. Hand goes one step further. He 

 does not allow a single section in the comb-hon- 

 ey supers to be capped over, as he says that 

 would be likely to induce swarming. When 

 the honey of such supers is about ready to 

 cap they are removed and others given in 

 their stead. After the honey-flow is over, 

 the sections are completed by feeding back 

 thinned-down extracted honey in a large 

 feeder under the two brood-sections. The 

 honey fed back is that secured in the extract- 

 ing-supers already mentioned. The bees 

 are fed two days in succession followed by 

 an interim of two days alternately, during 

 which they have time to thicken the honey 

 and deposit it in the sections not quite com- 

 pleted. But in feeding back, there must be 

 a young vigorous queen, and a large force of 

 young bees in a colony reduced down to one 

 brood-section of combs that are not old, for 

 dark ones will soil the sections above. In- 

 stead of using colonies that produced most 

 of this honey, Mr. Hand prepares a few spe- 

 cial ones, reducing them down to the one 

 brood-section. This work is all done after 

 the honey-flow. The secret of Mr. Hand's 

 success in the control of swarms lests on the 

 frequent manipulation of the brood-sections 

 and getting the bees started into extracting- 

 supers ( into which they go readily); then sub- 

 stituting for them sections of combs partly 

 drawn out (we omitted to state that these 

 were drawn out during fruit-bloom). An- 

 other factor in the problem is not allowing 

 any comb-honey super to be capped over, 

 but giving the bees fresh supers; and then, 

 lastof all, feeding back after the harvest is 

 over, when there will be no tendency to 

 swarm, and the bees can, at leisure, fill out 



