892 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



and brood-nest, to make it still warmer. 

 He also believes in the practice of having a 

 wide entrance so as to have the warmest 

 part of the hive in the super so the bees 

 will be compelled to carry the honey where 

 it will be in marketable shape for the mas- 

 ter. 



But when you refer to deep top-bars as 

 being an obstruction, have you made exper- 

 iments to prove the statement? A piece of 

 wood % square can be kept just as warm 

 as the same cubic capacity of sealed comb 

 honey. If any thing, it will be less a con- 

 ductor of heat. After having traveled many 

 thousands of miles, and looked into the in- 

 side of hundreds of hives having thick top- 

 bars, it convinces me there is no real differ- 

 ence so far as the inclination of the bees is 

 concerned to go into the supers. While the- 

 oretically there might be a dift'erence, that 

 difference is so slight as hardl3' to be worth 

 taking into the calculation. — Ed.] 



BRUSHED SWARMS. 



The SEarly History of Them in Europe; the Advan= 



tages of Large Hives in Connection with the 



Method; Qreiner's Objection. 



BY L. STACHKLHA.USEN. 



rif In Gleanings of October 1, different bee- 

 keepers write for and against brushed 

 swarms. At first I will say a few words 

 about the history. That we can take from 

 a strong colony all the frames of brood ex- 

 cept probably one or two, and give empty 

 combs or starters in their place, was known 

 long ago, and this is the same thing as a 

 brushed swarm set on the old stand, and 

 the same thing as the driven swarm forced 

 from a straw skep, and known more than 

 100 years ago. Gravenhorst made a step 

 in advance, advising a way by which the 

 bees brushed or shaken from the combs 

 could be set on a new place and would stay 

 there, at least the greater part of them. 

 This, too, is twenty or more years old. I 

 myself described this method in the Api- 

 culficrisf, 1884, page 97. 



At present the forming of certain brush- 

 ed or shaken swarms has a certain purpose, 

 and is new in this respect: My idea is to 

 use large hives during the spring for the 

 production of comb honey in sections. In 

 these large hives we gain two advantages: 

 1. The colonies develop in the spring in a 

 natural way in these large hives better, and 

 get stronger than in small hives, in spite of 

 all the spreading of brood, stimulative feed- 

 ing, and other troublesome work as recom- 

 mended by Doolittle and others. 2. From 

 these large hives we are nearly sure to get 

 no swarms before the main honey- flow. 



Now we have another consideration : 

 These large hives or brood-chambers are 

 not practical for the production of comb hon- 

 ey in sections, if we give the section-supers 

 simply on top of the old colonies. This is 

 well known, and it is the reason why Doo- 

 little manipulates his frames in the spring. 



For many years I found that I could get the 

 best and most honey in sections from strong 

 swarms, if they appear just when the main 

 honey- flow commenced. Then I asked my- 

 self, "Why, then, do you not form swarms 

 artificially at just the right time, and still 

 use the advantages of large hives in the 



spring, 



In this way I gaine:? another 



advantage. I was nearly sure to get no 

 swarms at all from the colonies worked for 

 comb honey, during the honey-flow, and 

 just this was one of the main difficulties in 

 producing comb honey. This whole idea 

 was new at that time, and it seems that the 

 advantages, as I saw them years ago, are 

 recognized just now. 



About the drawbacks of brushed swarms, 

 Fr. Gr-einer is afraid of absconding. He 

 says 20 per cent turn out to be failures. 

 During more than 20 j-ears I formed surely 

 several hundred brushed swarms on the old 

 stand as well as on new ones. Only one of 

 them absconded, and settled like a natural 

 swarm on a limb of a tree near by. It was 

 a very strong colony, and I had given them 

 one brood-comb and a very small space for 

 brood-chamber, separated from the supers 

 by a queen-excluder. I removed the brood- 

 comb, enlarged the brood -chamber, and 

 hived the swarm again, and every thing 

 went all right. Some years I had trouble 

 from absconding of natural swarms ; but 

 with brushed swarms I never had any dif- 

 ficulty. Gravenhorst recommended remov- 

 ing the brood-comb the first day after form- 

 ing the swarm, because .this brood-comb 

 could cause absconding of the swarm. This 

 maj' be true in his locality. Here I do not 

 do it, and have no trouble. Of more im- 

 portance, it seems to me, it is to have the 

 bees filled with honey and to give to the 

 swarm sufficient room. I give them so much 

 room that the bees can form a cluster like 

 a swarm. 



As soon as the bees commence to build 

 combs, and some eggs (or, still better, 

 some young larvas) are found in the newly 

 built cells, we can contract the brood-nest. 

 For this purpose a divisible brood-chamber 

 is very handy. At first I give two of my 

 stories, and a few days afterward I remove 

 the lower one. 



" A brushed swarm is also apt to build a 

 large lot of drone comb." So says Mr. 

 Greiner. I could not observe this. I never 

 found any difference in this respect between 

 artificial and natural swarms; but if the 

 queen is old, the swarm will commence to 

 build drone-combs sooner than if the queen 

 were young and prolific. Such old queens 

 will be superseded, probably, the same sea- 

 son. For getting mostly worker combs we 

 need a prolific queen, a good honey-flow, a 

 limited brood-chamber, and the brood-comb 

 given at first must be removed the next day. 

 Nevertheless, I am not sure yet whether it 

 will pay or not to let the bees build natural 

 combs at all. If we use a queen-excluder 

 between lower story and supers, and a con- 

 tracted brood-chamber, we can probably 

 give full sheets of foundation, without any 



