April 14, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



279 



SECOND DAY— Morning Session. 

 Mr. Morley Pettit read his paper as follows, on 

 FORCED OR SHAKEN SWARMS. 



The key-note of modern business is specialization and 

 expansion. The highest success can only be attained by 

 concentration on a single line. To bee-keepers this means 

 cutting out all side-lines and keeping more bees. Not only 

 that, but they must be kept with the least expense possible 

 of time and money. To do this one must have large ideas, 

 establish out-apiaries and adopt methods quite different 

 from those employed in a single yard. 



The first and greatest problem in connection with out- 

 apiaries is that of controlling the desire, more or less devel- 

 ■ oped in all bees, to swarm. Where one is devoting his 

 whole time to a single yard, it is comparatively simple to 

 allow this impulse to take its natural course ; but while 

 swarms are issuing and being hived at home, the thought 

 would be unpleasant, to say the least, that swarms were 

 issuing without being hived at several yards away from 

 home. 



A great many plans for the control or prevention of 

 swarming have been proposed and adopted with varied suc- 

 cess ; but the one particularly under discussion is known as 

 "forced," "brushed," or "shaken" swarming. It was 

 first brought before the public in a time and manner to 

 attract public attention, by L. Stachelhausen, in Gleanings 

 in Bee-Culture for Nov. 1, 1900. True, this method has been 

 practiced and- described to a limited extent for over 100 

 years, but not until this recent date, when the general 

 establishment of out-apiaries had awakened to the sense of 

 need, did the idea become popular. During the three years 

 which have followed Mr. Stachelhausen's first article, the 

 matter which has been printed on this one subject would 

 fill volumes. It has been tried and rejected or adopted with 

 variations by thousands of apiarists. Upon the whole, it 

 has proved most generally successful. 



It is the purpose of this paper to describe briefly 

 ■"forced swarming " as practiced by myself with a large 

 measure of success iuring the past season. By it natural 

 swarming is almost entirely avoided, and each yard visited 

 only once every seven to ten days. 



In the first place, every effort is made to retard swarm- 

 ing. Extracting-supers are put on all except weak colo- 

 nies during fruit-bloom, and a certain amount of evening 

 up of brood — that is, taking from strong and giving to the 

 weak — is done at that time. When white honey begins 

 coming in freely the brood is again evened up, and in 

 stronger colonies alternated with empty combs. Comb- 

 honey supers are put on, or extracting supers enough to 

 contain the full amount of white honey expected per colony. 

 Entrances are enlarged to their fullest extent, about 1 '4 xl2 

 inches, and ventilation is given at the top of the super, so 

 that a current of fresh air will pass freely through the hive. 

 Now, if hives can be partly shaded, and the brood-chambers 

 are large enough to give full scope to the laying powers of 

 the queen, swarming will be greatly retarded. At the next 

 visit all hives are examined for indications of the swarming 

 impulse. If only empty queen-cells are found, and the 

 brood-chamber is nearly full of brood, a frame of brood is 

 removed and replaced by foundation ; and cells containing 

 eggs are broken down. The brood removed is used tor 

 strengthening weak colonies, or forming nuclei. 



If any cell contains a queen-larva it is proof that the 

 swarming impulse is far enough advanced to take action. 

 Hives previously prepared for swarms have been distributed 

 about the yard before starting operations. They each con- 

 tain in the order named 2 dummies, 3 starters, 1 worker- 

 comb, 3 starters and 3 dummies — 12 in all in a hive of 10- 

 frame Langstroth capacitj". One of these is brought and 

 set down on a bottom-board, and stands behind the hive to 

 be treated. The operator who sits at the left of the hive re- 

 moves the three dummies from the right or farther side of 

 the new hive, and shoves over the remaining contents so as 

 to have the empty space next to the hive. He now lifts the 

 comb nearest him from the brood-chamber, shakes it almost 

 free of bees, and places it in the new hive next to the left 

 wall. The next comb has a double space for shaking off 

 bees in the old hive. It takes its place beside the first comb, 

 and the return motion of the hands carries a dummy from 

 the new hive to the old. Comb No. 3 is shaken, carried to 

 the new hive, and dummy No. 2 is brought back. The 

 4th comb exchanges places with the first starter, and so 

 on. When the 12th comb has been shaken in its own hive, 

 and transferred to the new, the 6th starter put in its place, 

 and the old hive filled out with the 3 remaining dummies. 



we put on the supers, close the hive, and the bees have been 

 " swarmed." 



There is now a sirarm hived on starters on the old 

 stand under conditions fairly natural, at the convenience of 

 the bee-keeper, without fuss, excitement, or acrobatic feats. 

 Leaving them in the old hive is merely a matter of con- 

 venience. Unless there is no honey in the supers it is not 

 necessary to wait for the bees to fill themselves with honey 

 before shaking, as they can do that at leisure afterwards. 

 These swarms behave in all respects like natural swarms 

 just hived. If they swarm out the next day, so would nat- 

 ural swarms under like conditions, and the same little 

 devices must be used to make them contented. For example, 

 in comb-honey production it may be best to hive on a full 

 set of starters (not omitting the comb) for a few days, then 

 contract with dummies. Shade should be given, etc., and 

 always ample ventilation. The empty comb in the middle 

 is useful for various things. If the supers contain sections 

 it catches pollen which might otherwise go up ; if extract- 

 ing combs, it keeps the bees from all going up into the 

 supers and deserting the queen. 



In extracted honey production it may be best to shake 

 on a set of full sheets of foundation. I propose to test this 

 matter fully next season. 



A few minutes after shaking, swarms sometimes show 

 signs of queenlessness. The queen has been accidentally 

 left with the brood, or, in rare cases, has been lost. In 

 this case, we do not bother hunting the queen because 

 she will do no harm with the brood, and if lost she can not 

 be found. In fact, we hunt queens except in rare cases, but 

 once a year, viz.: at the clipping season. Give this queen- 

 less swarm a young queen, a ripe queen-cell, or a frame of 

 open brood and eggs. If the latter is given, all but the best 

 queen-cell must be destroyed at the next visit. 



The "parent colony," as we may call the hive of brood, 

 sits directly behind the swarm, and has enough bees to care 

 for the brood and the best queen-cells which have been 

 saved unshaken. It is given an extracting super at once, 

 and removed to a new stand at the next weekly visit. To 

 save time, these parent colonies might be given laying 

 queens, or, on the other hand, the brood might be shaken 

 clean of bees, and used for building up weak colonies and 

 nuclei. 



For comb-honey production I know of only one better 

 system than the one just described. That is, to allow the 

 bees to swarm naturally. No colonies work in sections with 

 the same vigor as natural swarms. This system is the 

 nearest approach to natural swarming, and is, all things 

 considered, enough cheaper to make it more profitable. 



In producing extracted honey, I think that the 12-frame 

 Langstroth brood-chamber and super capacity of 24 frames 

 with one large entrance and upward ventilation from June 

 first on, will reduce swarming to a minimum, which may be 

 almost disregarded. I hope to be able to report more fully 

 on this subject next year. 



On examining later, colonies which had been shaken on 

 starters without any comb, I found in some cases the queen 

 gone. She had been worried to death by the bees that 

 could not see why she did not go up into the super with the 

 rest of them. Morley Pettit. 



Mr. Sibbald, in opening the discussion, spoke in terms 

 of commendation of the paper just read, saying that it evi- 

 dently had not been written without experience. Mr. Pettit 

 well said that labor is the greatest factor in beekeeping. 

 Other expenses are comparatively small. We are not in 

 the business just for fun, and we must learn to economize 

 labor in every way. Swarming is the greatest difficulty we 

 have to contend with. Mr. Sibbald mentioned the methods 

 of retarding swarming by ventilation and equalizing brood, 

 as being quite in accord with his views. The latter also 

 equalizes the labor by producing more uniformity in the 

 condition of the colonies. He was not, however, in favor of 

 such large hives. He thought it quite possible to overdo 

 the queen, and when she fails to fill all the cells, pollen and 

 honey are crowded in, and the swarming impulse begins. 

 The brood-chamber should contain only brood, the super 

 only honey. Then we can control the color of the honey 

 better. 



Another point : He considered the dummies as quite 

 unnecessary — " too much truck," as he expressed it. Give 

 them lots of work above, and you don't have much below. 

 Even for comb honey Mr. Sibbald finds little building done 

 at the sides of the brood-chamber. Then, to prevent after- 

 swarming he would make the second shake, and remove the 

 parent hive from the left side of the swarm to the right. At 

 the close of the sea.son set tlie brood-chamber of the parent 



