1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



807 



BRUSHED SWARMS. 



Some Unpleasant Features; The Danger of Ab= 



sconding after Brushing; the Building of Drone 



Comb ; Pollen in the Sections. 



BY F. GREINER. 



It seems that, before a certain thing- is 

 thoroughly understood and fully appreciat- 

 ed by the many, it has to be brought up 

 again and again, in the press and every- 

 where, talked about in the convention, harp- 

 ed on in private conversation, etc. That 

 seems to be the way because one person can 

 seldom so present a thing at one time that 

 everybody will see it in the right light. 

 Therefore we keep on talking about lots of 

 other things as well as "brushed swarms." 



When Gravenhorst first (to our knowl- 

 edge) made known this method of treating 

 strong colonies, perhaps only few realized 

 the value and the importance of it. It 

 found few followers. G. M. Doolittle hit on 

 the same thing, probably without any 

 knowledge of what the former had written. 

 This must have been in 1877 or '8; at least, 

 it appeared in print about that time, and I 

 practiced it according to his instructions in 

 a limited way for a few years, but without 

 seeing the possibilities the method afforded. 

 Some years later the keeping of out-apia- 

 ries made it desirable to manage our bees 

 in such a way as to prevent their swarming 

 to keep them at work rather than to let 

 them go to the — ivoods. This was the time 

 when we came back to the Gravenhorst or 

 Doolittle practice. 



One reason, perhaps, whj^ the method of 

 brushing swarms did not come into more 

 universal use sooner was because it has 

 some drawbacks as well as disadvantages. 

 These drawbacks have not been kept from 

 the public. Stachelhausen and others have 

 attempted to show them up. Let us consid- 

 er them again. 



A brushed swarm is not alwaj^s a suc- 

 cess. About 20 per cent turn out to be fail- 

 ures. Why? Because of absconding. Rob- 

 bing a colony of all its possessions has a 

 tendency to produce a discontented condi- 

 tion among the bees. I have not yet found 

 out to my satisfaction just how this brush- 

 ing should be done to prevent such a state 

 </f affairs, for the majority of swarms go 

 right on and do their level best after the 

 operation. Only the few seem bound to 

 seek other quarters. Entrance-guards do 

 not every time prevent absconding. I have 

 recorded several cases of absconding when 

 the guard had been applied. In one case 



the queen was left with just a handful of 

 bees. In another the queen and all was 

 gone. Still I do make a practice of apply- 

 the entrance-guard after the bees (and in 

 particular the queen) have gone in. 



In one instance last summer I removed 

 the guard on my next visit three days after 

 applying it. The swarm left me even then. 

 I now keep the entrance-guard on for a 

 week after brushing. 



A comb of open brood is very apt to hold 

 the bees, but does not every time. The rule 

 is a good one, but there are exceptions. 



A brushed swarm is also apt to build a 

 large lot of drone comb. Natural swarms, 

 on an average, build far less of it. The 

 age of the queen has a good deal to do with 

 this matter. If every brushed swarm had 

 a young queen there would not be much 

 trouble as to building drone comb. Unfor- 

 tunately the average honey-producer has 

 not things so well regulated but that a por- 

 tion of his colonies are headed by old moth- 

 ers. These colonies, if brushed, will build 

 the undesirable comb. 



In the hurry of the busy season it is next 

 to impossible to keep close track of our 

 brushed swarms as to their building comb. 

 At the close of our white-honey season they 

 should then have at least an overhauling. 

 The combs taken from them in the earl}^ 

 part of the season may in part be used to 

 replace drone combs, and to regulate things 

 generally in their brood-chamber. If the 

 drones in the combs that are to be removed 

 have not yet hatched I behead them with an 

 uncapping-knife and shake the carcasses 

 out of their cells. The}' make good chicken 

 feed and excellent bait for fishing. The 

 combs are placed in upper stories to be ex- 

 tracted later. Finally, they may be melted 

 up, if not wanted for extracting-combs. 



It is not an uncommon thing for brushed 

 swarms to store pollen in sections. Nearly 

 all my pollen - containing sections have 

 come from this source. A small brood- 

 chamber, and particularly a shallow one, 

 will often force a good deal of pollen into 

 the sections when the honey-flow is light, 

 as is usually the case with the large major- 

 ity of honey-producers. The 400 lbs. sur- 

 plus per hive (Gandy), or the 450 lbs. of 

 section honey (Wilson, Nebraska, p. 739), 

 appear like myths to most of us, and I 

 think we having these meager honey yields 

 are excusable for not believing such reports. 

 This is voicing the sentiment of the people 

 hereabouts. 



In order to prevent pollen being stored in 

 sections, a zinc excluder will help. The 

 old Heddon honey-board, of which James 

 Heddon once s^iid, "I want to go on record 

 as saying my honey - board has come to 

 stay," is the best thing, any wa}', to pro- 

 duce fancy comb honey, and may also be 

 used for the purpose here. It lessens pol- 

 len in the supers; it lessens travel-stain; it 

 lessens burr-combs and propolis. Let us 

 give it another trial, friends. We would 

 certainly have better quality if we used it 

 extensively. 



