1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



751 



so strong that their bees would swarm, then I 

 brush one or two colonies on starters into a hive 

 and give the brood-combs to others, to bring 

 these to the swarming-point. 



Now comes the swarming time, according to 

 the weather, the progress of the vegetation, 

 and the condition of the colonies. All the 

 swarms which come forth as natural ones are 

 welcome; and those which issue involuntarily 

 I make artificial. If an artificial swarm is 

 made in the right way, say as a true copy of a 

 natural one, then it is by no means inferior to a 

 natural swarm; yea, I prefer such a one as oc- 

 casion may arise. I have had seasons where I 

 did not get one natural swarm at the time I 

 wished, so that I was forced to make them ar- 

 tificial. If I did not do this I should not have 

 had the greatest yield of honey, because the 

 colonies would have swarmed too soon. 



Here I must say that I do not manage my 

 bees so as to get a swarm from every colony in 

 my apiaries. Some of the colonies I keep from 

 swarming. These are, as I name them, "die 

 Honigstocke " — colonies which are designed 

 only to gather honey. I keep them in working 

 order from spring to autumn. Sometimes in 

 the season we have here an unexpected and 

 sudden honey-flow and in such cases they will 

 gather some surplus honey, be that at home or 

 in the neighborhood after I have taken them 

 there. 



Thus my method is adapted only to the 

 honey-flow of that part of my country where 

 the bees before the middle of June, in most 

 years, live only from hand to mouth, where all 

 the gathered honey will be consumed by brood- 

 rearing and building some combs. They would 

 not have any more honey if I prevented them 

 from building combs. That may sound para- 

 doxical, but it Is so. My experience has taught 

 me that comb building under such circum- 

 stances is a mere bywork; therefore I give all 

 my early swarms only starters, and, according 

 to their size, five, six, or more frames. These 

 few frames are, by the by, soon filled with nat- 

 ural combs of only worker-cells, and are better 

 and cheaper than such frames of comb founda- 

 tion would be. As soon as these combs are 

 nearly finished I make the utmost use of comb 

 foundation, to have the brood-room full of 

 combs. The honey-room is then to be filled 

 with frames of full combs. 



I must say here that I work my bees only for 

 extracted honey, because I have not a market 

 for comb honey — at least, it sells in Germany 

 for not a bit more than the extracted article. 



All the colonies from which I got a swarm 

 will rear queens, and most of them will give a 

 second swarm in due time. I let them swarm; 

 and while the swarm clusters on the tree I 

 transfer the mother colony to a clean hive, 

 shake the bees, comb after comb, into it, cut 

 out every queen-cell, arrange the combs the 



best I can for the brood-nest; then I bring the 

 issued swarm (or, better still, an after-swarm) 

 from another colony, and bring it on the comb- 

 in the prepared hive. There are one or mon' 

 queens in an after-swarm; but the bees will 

 soon select one of them, and the other will bo 

 killed. As soon as this is accomplished the 

 colony will take up its work with the energy of 

 a swarm; and as honey is coming in, and the 

 hives are full of bees and combs, the colony 

 works to my heart's content. If I were to cut 

 out all queen-cells before swarming, and let 

 some remain in the mother colony, in many 

 cases it will swarm with the only one queen; 

 and if not, I know by experience that such a 

 colony, before it queen has deposited eggs in 

 the cells, does not work in the field with such 

 energy a^ do those which have a queen with an 

 after-swarm. The queens of after-swarms will, 

 on an average, get fertile sooner than queens 

 from cells one may select by the cut-out pro- 

 cess. 



As I keep my bees according to the peculiar- 

 ities of the region I inhabit, and the construc- 

 tion of my hive, my method will not be conven- 

 ient for every one. Where there is a main 

 flow of honey earlier than in my region, there 

 would be an equalization of the colonies in the 

 spring — a fault. Here one has to let the weak- 

 er colonies alone, and strengthen the best, to 

 have them in working order at the right time. 

 Swarming of the bees is then a fault only when 

 it counteracts our designs for getting surplus 

 honey. 



This season, when I got the first swarm on 

 the 28th of May, I have not had the full benefit 

 of the honey-flow because " every thing was in a 

 hurry." The blossoms of corn-flowers, acacias, 

 lindens, etc., opened 10 or 12 days earlier than 

 other years, contrary to my calculations. Nev- 

 ertheless, I have had a good honey crop, and 

 that not only by good management of my bees, 

 but by moving with them. The right manage- 

 ment of the bees, according to the region one 

 lives in, does very much to gain a good honey 

 crop; but where there is no honey in the blos- 

 soms, the best-managed colonies will gather 

 nothing. This I know very well, and therefore 

 I am continually on the lookout to see where 

 there is a good honey-flow in my neighborhood. 

 Perhaps there may have been sown rape, clo- 

 ver, or other honey- producing plants which are 

 just yielding honey, while at home there is lit- 

 tle or nothing to gather for bees. A rain may 

 there have developed the plants better. If I 

 one day learn that somewhere within a radius 

 of 8 miles is a better honey-flow than at home, 

 then I prepare one or two cartloads of my bees 

 on the same day, and on the following morning 

 my bees gather honey at the new place. 



The hive I use is well adapted to moving with 

 bees, and easily got ready for it. I moved some 

 of my colonies this season to a large field of 



