April, T.ii::. 



American ^ee Journal 



107 



Contributed 



Articles^ 



Artificial Swarming or Divid- 

 ing of Colonies 



BY C;. M. DOOLITTI.E. 



A correspondent living in the middle 

 Southern States wishes me to give an 

 article in the American Bee Journal 

 telling how bees can be made to swarm 

 at will, or increase be made artificially 

 whenever the bee-keeper desires, this 

 being applicable to the man who can 

 not be at home during the hours of the 

 day from !) in the morning to 4 in the 

 afternoon, or to the one who has one 

 or more out-apiaries. 



During the past, there have many 

 plans of division of colonies been given, 

 such as dividing the bees, brood and 

 honey about equally, putting half in a 

 new hive and giving the queenless part 

 anew queen or queen-cells: or taking 

 a frame with brood and honey from 

 the old colony, together with the 

 queen, and setting this with frames 

 filled with comb foundation in a new 

 hive, when the old hive was to be car- 

 ried to a new stand and this new hive 

 placed on the old stand, doing this 

 changing and work at a time when 

 many bees were flying, so that the 

 larger part of the flying force of the 

 hive would go into the new hive with 

 the queen. The next day a ripe queen- 

 cell was to be given to the old colony, 

 so that in due time both colonies would 

 be headed by good queens. For a quick, 

 simple plan of artificial increase, prob- 

 ably this last is as good as any in the 

 hands of a beginner. But it is not 

 quite equal to any plan which causes 

 the bees to fill themselves with honey, 

 when a good yield of honey, as well as 

 of increase, is desired. 



Causing the bees to fill themselves 

 with honey, similar to that done by 

 the bees when swarming naturally, 

 gives an artificially-made colony nearly 

 as much energy as has the natural 

 swarm. 



Before the introduction of the mov- 

 able-frame hive, the late Elisha Gallup, 

 then living in Iowa, told us through 

 the columns of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, how to make " natural swarms arti- 

 ficially," This wasdone (by "forcing" 

 swarms) by drumming on the old box- 

 hive after it was turned bottom side up, 

 with a box put over it, into which the 

 bees would crawl after they had taken 

 all the honey their honey-sacs would 

 hold, as they always will when they are 

 thus driven from their old home. 



When in the box it was taken to a 

 shady place and leaned against the 

 body of a tree, the open side of the 

 box facing out toward the light. If 

 the queen went up into the box with 

 the bees this forced swarm would stay 

 clustered in the box the same'as any 

 natural swarm would hang on a limb. 

 This process of causing them to gorge 

 themselves with honey, and then to re- 

 main clustered as a swarm, causes the 

 bees immediately to begin the process 

 of necessary secretion of wax the same 

 as does the natural swarm. It also 

 causes them to adhere to a new loca- 

 tion the same as will a clustered swarm 

 when hiving it from the limb of a tree. 



The box of bees was left in the shade 

 from 10 a,m, until 2 or 3 p,m,, when 

 they were hived as a natural swarm, 

 and to all intents and purposes were in 

 every way equal to the same. In this 

 way the man who could be at home 

 only in the morning could make his 

 swarms, get good results in honey, and 

 not be worrying all the while when he 

 was away from home, fearing the bees 

 would swarm during his absence and 

 fly away to the woods. 



With out-yards the apiarist is com- 

 pelled to take this swarming matter 

 into his own hands, and if he is a pro- 

 gressive bee-keeper he will find that 

 the nearer he can keep to Nature's 

 methods, while at the same time he is 

 accomplishing his desired purpose the 

 better, or more successful he will be- 



come. lUit with the movable frames a 

 our command, instead of driving the 

 bees as was necessary with box-hives, 

 it is much more convenient to shake 

 the bees. And at times when the flow- 

 ers are secreting nectar abundantly, or 

 to such an extent that the thin nectar 

 will shake out from the cells when the 

 bees are shaken off the combs, so that 

 the bees are more or less daubed with 

 the same, they will be sufticiently 

 gorged for our purposes without any 

 further preparation than simplv shak- 

 ing them into the hive which we wish 

 them to occupy. But «here we do this 

 without causing them to cluster, as is 

 often done at the out-apiary so as to 

 economize time, it is necessary to leave 

 the hive into which they are shaken on 

 the old stand, for, otherwise, the bees 

 would mostly leave and go back to 

 their old home, thus thwarting the pur- 

 pose which we wished to accomplish. 



As to the wax-secretion necessary 

 with a flow of nectar as above de- 

 scribed, all the bees of suitable age for 

 comb-building would already have wax- 

 scales in their wax-pockets, so that it 

 would not be necessary for them to be 

 set aside to cluster .5 or 6 hours. But 

 where swarms are to be made at times 

 when nectar is not abundant, some 

 pains must be taken to have the bees 

 fill themselves with honey and allow 

 them to cluster if the best results are 

 to be secured. Then, where the old 

 colony or hive is to be placed on a new 

 stand there should always be enough 

 bees left when shaking to protect the 

 brood properly. When thus shaking 

 the bees in a JO-frame hive I always 

 leave 3 frames without shaking. What 

 bees adhere to these 3, and those which 

 will be all about the inside of the hive 

 seem to be sufficient to care for the 

 brood of the whole hive, when this is 

 set on a new stand. 



When working thus at the out-apiary 

 it is well to carry along a ripe queen- 

 cel! in a queen-cell protector for each 

 old hive from which two-thirds of the 

 bees and the old queen have been 

 shaken. 



In making new colonies in this way 

 it is best to do this work before the 

 bees have prepared for swarming, but 

 not until the hives have become popu- 

 lous with bees. If deferred until they 



No. I— .Apiarv in Maink— Avera<jei) 100 Lbs. in ioio. 



No. 2— OWXKR OF OfPOSlLK .\|'1ARV IlOI.DING A COMK. 



