June, 1913. 



Ameiican Tiee Journal 



Fig. I.— Lowering the Swarm. 



trait of their mothers. But there is 

 nothing certain about it. They are 

 likely to revert back to their more re- 

 mote ancestors and swarm to beat the 

 band. It all depends upon conditions 

 which we cannot control. 



Another way that gives us at least 

 partially the benefit of a non-swarming 

 strain is to control swarming by 

 proper manipulation. I have just re- 

 ceived Farmers' Bulletin No. 503 ; its 

 subject is " Comb honey." To the 

 comb-honey producer this bulletin is 

 of special value; it would pay any bee- 

 keeper, beginner as well as veteran of 

 many years' experience, to send for a 



copy, if not already in possession of 

 one. A fair portion of space is taken 

 up in a comprehensive way with the 

 subject of "Swarm Control by Manipu- 

 lation." The various methods as prac- 

 ticed by our most advanced bee-keep- 

 ers are given, and undoubtedly they 

 are the most practical and in con- 

 formity with our knowledge up to the 

 present time. 



While the results of these manipula- 

 tions may be very gratifying, there is 

 one great drawback to nearly all of 

 them. It takes too much time and 

 labor to make them reasonably suc- 

 cessful, and this at a time when the 



bee-keeper is bound hand and foot 

 with driving apiary work. With the 

 production of extracted honey it is 

 very different. We can control swarm- 

 ing without any e.xtra efifort, and this 

 is one of the great advantages derived 

 from the production of honey in this 

 form. If we keep close watch of all 

 our colonies, make sure that they have 

 empty combs at all times during a 

 honey-flow, and this we must do to re- 

 ceive best results in the shape of sur- 

 plus honey, we have, as a rule, practi- 

 cally no swarming. 



As an additional safeguard against 

 swarming, we should allow no old 

 queens in the yard. In connection 

 with supersedure, swarms are liable to 

 issue, and as the introduction of young, 

 vigorous queens is necessary to insure 

 strong, healthy colonies we, at the 

 same time, prevent so-called supersed- 

 ing by doing so. 



During the last 10 or 12 years, the 

 time I have practiced producing ex- 

 tracted honey almost exclusively, I 

 have had less than 'j percent swarming 

 under the management here outlined. I 

 had prided myself on having mastered 

 the swarming problem to a finish, but 

 the past season surprised me in several 

 ways. Contrary to all expectation, I 

 can hardly give a plausible reason for 

 it, from Aug. 21 to Sept. 4 about 30 per- 

 cent of my bees cast swarms, some of 

 them having young queens introduced 

 in the spring. 



It has been claimed that during a 

 light but steady honey-tlow, bees are 

 more liable to swarm than during a 

 heavy.rushing flow.or no flowatall. This 

 last season seemed to prove this theory. 

 From the first week of August until the 

 end of October, we had just such a 

 flow. Honey was coming in just fast 

 enough to keep bees breeding, but none 

 to store in supers, and, as a conse- 

 quence, honey being used for brood- 

 rearing as fast as gathered, hives were 

 not as heavy with winter stores as 

 usual. 



The accompanying pencil drawing, 

 Fig. 1, describes the feat of capturing 

 a swarm under difficulties. When tak- 

 ing a general survey of the prevailing 

 conditions, and trying to plan some 

 feasible way of capturing the runaways, 

 I was almost tempted, on account of 

 the danger connected with the under- 

 taking, to let them paddle their own 

 canoe. But it happened to be the 

 choice of my yard, the queen I intend- 

 ed to use as a breeder next year. Be- 

 sides being uncommonly gentle and 

 prolific, this swarm, one-half of a 

 divided one, had given me 120 pounds 

 of white clover, and between .50 and (30 

 pounds of dark honey during the sea- 

 son — all in all a very desirable acqui- 

 sition to any yard, and worth the at- 

 tempt to secure them. 



When climbing the tree I found that 

 the branch on which the swarm had clus- 

 tered was too frail to support a person 

 unless some re-enforcement could be 

 made available. The rope, connecting 

 the two main branches, answered this 

 purpose, and at the same time fur- 

 nished a support for the operator to 

 stand on. From the drawing it will be 

 seen that when the limb was cut with 

 the left hand, the right hand had to 

 manipulate the hook and line in such 

 a way that the swarm reached its per- 



