266 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



CONVEMSATIONS WITH DOOLITTL: 



At Borodino, New York. 



PREVENTION OP AFTER-SWARillNG. 



"Will you tell ns how to control 

 after-swarming? Last j'ear dur- 

 ing baying- time, after the colonies 

 had all cast their prime swarms, 

 after-swarming became a perfect 

 nuisance." 

 Peisistent after-swarming is one of the 

 disgusting things where natural swarming 

 is allowed, and is bard to stop after the 

 bees once get started. Some of our practi- 

 cal beekeepers depend upon liiving the 

 prime swarm in a new hive on the old stand, 

 and immediately carrying the old colony to 

 a new stand a rod 'or more away, reasoning 

 that, with the loss of bees which go with 

 the swarm, and by a still further loss by all 

 of the flying bees returning to the old loca- 

 tion and joining the swarm, the j^arent 

 colony will be so reduced that the bees will 

 of themselves give up all idea of further 

 swarming. They tear down all queen-cells 

 but one, or destroy all embryo queens after 

 the first young queen has emerged from her 

 cell. Thus after-swarming Avill be done 

 away with by this one change of location 

 with the old colony. This does not always 

 work in all localities, for there is an occa- 

 sional colony which will settle down in an 

 hour or two after being carried to a new 

 stand, so Ihat the flying bees do not "draw" 

 off, as it is expected they will, and thus 

 enough are left, with the hundreds and 

 thousands continually coming from the ma- 

 turing brood, to cherish the immature 

 queen-cells, so that perhaps one colony out 

 of four will go on with after-swarming. 



Other practical beekeepers consider a 

 modification of the above to be almost 

 perfect, claiming that not one colony in 

 fifty will ever send out an after-swarm if 

 the modified j^lan is used, which is : Reduce 

 the bees in the parent hive by hiving the 

 prime swarm in a new hive on the old 

 stand, then gradually turn the old hive 

 around beside it till the entrance faces at 

 a right angle from that of the new hive. 

 Next set this old hive on the opposite side 

 of the new, with the entrance facing the 

 same way as the new, and as it did when the 

 swarm issued, then gradually turn it toward 

 the left. In four or five days the most of 

 the flj'ing bees will have joined the swarm 

 in the new hive. In two days more, or 

 seven days in all, at about two o'clock, when 

 the bees are flying freely, the old hive is to 

 be carried to a new stand, and left there. 

 This gets the new recruits of flying bees in 

 with the swarm, and still further reduces 



the bees in the old hive till there are no 

 itiore left than to care for the small amount 

 of brood. For this reason all thoughts of 

 sw^arming are taken away, the immature 

 queens slaughtered in their cells, and the 

 young queen, due to emerge from her cell 

 on the seventh day after the prime swarm 

 issued, becomes the mother of the colon}-. 

 If, in addition, the super that was on the 

 old hive when it swarmed is immediately 

 taken from the parent hive and put on the 

 new hive into which the swarm was placed. 

 this will not only reduce the bees in the old 

 hive, but give an impetus to the swarm by 

 way of making it at once enter the sections. 

 This impetus, together with the many young 

 bees that are thrown in with the swarm, 

 with each turn of the old hive, will lead to 

 a greater yield of .section honey than under 

 any other circumstances. Good results can 

 be secured, especiallj' where light hives like 

 the Heddon are used. But with the ten- 

 frame Langstroth or any double-walled or 

 cJiatf hives, this gradual turning of the old 

 hive and carrying it to a new stand is a 

 laborious, time-consuming operation. 



The i>lan which suits me best is to hive 

 the swarm on a new stand, allowing the 

 parent colony to remain where it always 

 stood, and in some short way putting the 

 date of issue of the prime swarm on tliis 

 old hive. On the evening of the eighth day 

 go to this hive and place the ear against 

 the side of it; and if the bees have con- 

 cluded to east an after-swarm j^ou will hear 

 the first-emerging young queen piping 

 above the gentle humming of the bees in- 

 side. If you do not hear it, listen just a 

 moment each evening till the fifteenth day. 

 If not then, you may know that no swarm 

 will issue from that hive as an after-swarm. 

 If you do hear it, you may know that one 

 of the young queens has emerged from her 

 cell and is at liberty among the bees, and 

 that an after-swarm is likely to issue the 

 next day. The next morning, after hearing 

 a queen piping, open the hive and shake 

 the bees off each frame of comb, when you 

 will carefully look for queen-cells, pinching 

 off every one as soon as seen, and shaking 

 the bees in front of the entrance, into which 

 the}' will run as fast as shaken. If the 

 colony does not have a super, put one on, 

 when all sAvarming will be done away with, 

 as you are certain that the bees will now 

 have only the one queen which was piping. 

 When worked in t])is way, both the new 

 .swarm and the old colony will give good re- 

 sults in section honey. 



