362 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



May 



seen so many swarms go off, however, be- 

 cause we had not got quite ready to take 

 them down, that I would get a comb of 

 brood among them just as soon as it could 

 he done ; and this brings us to 12H. 



Question 123.— Wlmt special means, if any, do you 

 use to prevent llh absconding o) a swarm after it is 

 hived? 



Give it a frame of unsealed brood. 



C. C. Miller. 



Give a frame of brood and shade. 



A. B. Mason. 



I usually give the swarm a comb of unsealed 

 brood. R. Wilkin. 



I use no other means than to give them a clean 

 cool hive. C. F. Muth. 



Only make them comfortable by giving shade if 

 the weather is hot. H. K. Boardman. 



T keep my queens' wings clipped; and if one 

 should become dissatisfied I give it a comb of 

 young brood. Geo. Grimm. 



I put in brood, in all stages. Notwithstanding 

 the assertion of some of our best bee-keepers, I am 

 fully persuaded that it does good. A. J. Cook. 



By putting a frame of uncapped brood, it is very 

 rare that a swarm will leave the hive. I use a 

 frame of brood and one of honey. 



P. L. Viallon. 



Usually none, except to place the hive in the 

 shade if the weather is warm. On some special oc- 

 casions, with peculiar or cranky swarms, I have giv- 

 en a frame of brood. Mas. L. Harrison. 



Of late I have used none, but think I shall return 

 to the old plan of giving a frame of unsealed brood, 

 as last summer I had to hive some swarms several 

 times a day for nearly a week. Of course,! keep 

 my queens' wings clipped. James A. Green. 



Clip the queen's wing; then if they try to go off , 

 the queen can not go, and the bees will return to 

 her. Then if I were there, or had an assistant 

 there at the time, I would cage the queen for a 

 week, and leave her in the hive, of course near the 

 tops of the frames. E. France. 



1. Avoid having any natural swarms to hive. 2. 

 Hive them in a clean cool hive, and be sure to give 

 it proper shade. A comb of brood placed in the 

 hive will also induce them to stay. If the wing of 

 the queen be clipped, the bees will not go to the 

 woods without her. L. C. Root. 



First swarms do not abscond except when some- 

 thing is offensive to bees in the hive, or when the 

 bee-keeper before hiving has given them comb, con- 

 tinuing or smelling of honey, which has attracted 

 robbers. Second swarms sometimes leave the 

 hive, to follow the young queen in her mating-trip. 

 If you desire to be secure, give them a comb of 

 young brood, after (not before) hiving. 



Dadant & Son. 



As I have never had more than two or three 

 swarms, during all my twenty years of bee-keeping, 

 leave their home after being hived, I find it un- 

 profitable to take any precautions against it. When 

 they do start out, do not expect them to alight, but 

 get after them with double force, with the Whit- 

 man fountain pump, and, nine chances out of ten, 

 they are yours. After re-hiving you might slip in 

 a comb of young hatching brood. 



James Heddon. 



Ordinarily I give the new swarm a frame of brood, 

 but not always. I am, however, very particular in 

 having the hive well shaded, for two or three days 

 at least. As I have never had a swarm abscond 

 after being hived, my knowledge of what is neces- 

 sary to prevent their doing so is theoretical only. 

 O. O. Poppleton. 



I do not find any special measures needful, if the 

 bees are entirely unmixed with others. I have no 

 especial spite against a frame of brood; but as a 

 minute in "pudding time" may be incalculably 

 precious, 1 do not usually take pains to give brood. 

 Mixed bees are, with me, very apt to kill all the 

 queens; and, of course, they must have brood 

 given them in every case. To be entirely sure of 

 badly mixed messes it is necessary to imprison 

 them, hive and all, in a pit for several days after 

 hiving. E. E. Hasty. 



Swarms having clipped wings do not abscond; 

 and as 1 keep my queens' wings clipped, none go 

 away; or, in other words, I have not lost a swarm 

 by their going away during the last 18 years, hav- 

 ing allowed natural swarming all of the time. I do 

 not allow second, or after-swarms. If I did, the 

 case might be different, for such queens must have 

 their wings till they get to laying. Some put a 

 strip of perforated metal before the entrance of all 

 prime swarms, after they are hived, which is a sure 

 preventive, as the queen can not go with the ab- 

 sconding bees. G. M. Doolittle. 



1 am glad to see so many friends support 

 me in my oft-repeated instructions to put 

 some unsealed brood with every cluster of 

 bees, under all possible circumstances, 

 whenever they are removed from one place 

 and put in another. We are not always sure 

 they have a queen, and, of course, they will 

 scatter around and get lost very soon in the 

 absence of a queen. The unsealed brood 

 fixes every thing sure in any event, and in- 

 dicates in a very few hours the want of a 

 queen when such is the case. How often 

 we hear novices worrying about their bees, 

 and saying, " I am afraid they have no 

 queen."' Sometimes I reply, " Why, you 

 might as well say you are afraid you have no 

 horse, and keep looking at the outside of 

 the barn, without even opening the stable 

 door." I often reply, further, " Why, look 

 and see." Then the answer comes, " Well, 

 I can't find any queen; and, in fact, I 

 should not know her if I did find her." I 

 should not wonder if there were hundreds 

 of the readers of Gleanings who are in 

 just that predicament now. Well, my 

 friend, you can tell, even if you do not know 

 a queen. If you put in that frame of un- 

 sealed brood we have been talking about, 

 you can tell in a very few hours whether 

 there is a queen in the hive, even if you 

 know almost nothing at all about bees. 

 Just learn to watch for queen-cells, and 

 then this comb of unsealed brood is like the 

 steam-gauge to the engineer, lie glances at 

 the gauge, and he knows when every thing 

 is all right. I want some unsealed brood 

 with every colony of bees in the apiary, 

 queen or no queen, new swarm or old swarm, 

 nucleus or full colony. So far as my experi- 

 ence goes, it never does any harm, and it is 

 pretty sure to do some good under all cir- 

 cumstances. 



