1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



977 



FORCED SWARMS. 



Plenty of Bees Essential to Success ; Shaken when 



Preparing to Swarm ; Shaken on to Foundation 



Not Recommended ; Best Results from 



Shaking on Empty Combs. 



BY J. E. CRANE. 



This method of making- swarms has 

 its uses and its disadvantages. It will 

 usually prevent swarming- or postpone it, I 

 should say nine times out of every ten 

 times you adopt it — perhaps more. I have 

 had such swarms fly out when shaken, and 

 allowed to run into an empty hive, when 

 g-iven frames of foundation, and I believe 

 very rarely, if ever, when given old combs. 



If the object is simpl}' to prevent swarm- 

 ing it is pretty effectual, but not wholly to 

 be depended on. But most bee-keepers de- 

 sire some method that will control swarm- 

 ing, and at the same time give the largest 

 yield of surplus honey. The value of this 

 method will depend very much on the skill 

 with which it is used, and perhaps most 

 valuable when used with other methods of 

 preventing increase. 



But let us look over the whole subject 

 more in detail. I have never observed but 

 that "shaken " swarms worked just as in- 

 dustriously as natural ones if there were as 

 many bees. We need strong colonies to 

 treat in this way to get best results, the 

 same as with natural swarms. As we 

 wish to prevent natural swarming we must 

 shake before they would, if left to them- 

 selves, swarm. There is danger of having 

 too few bees. Some place their bees out in 

 the spring in pairs, two colonies close to- 

 g-ether; and when the swarming season ar- 

 rives one of these colonies is shaken into a 

 new hive while the other is removed to a 

 new location, and given the brood-combs 

 from the one from which the bees have been 

 shaken. Thus one new colony receives all 

 the bees from one old one, and all the ma- 

 ture bees of the other with surplus boxes, 

 etc. This is a most excellent way, al- 

 though, owing- to the size of my hives, and 

 wintering on summer stands, I have not 

 practiced it. I have preferred to shake my 

 strongest colonies when I find them prepar- 

 ing- to swarm, and giving the brood from 

 them to weak colonies. 



If we shake our bees into an empty hive 

 there will be a loss of ten days to two weeks 

 (usually), unless they are very strong, £ind 

 honey very abundant, before they will do 

 much in the surplus ipartment. Some wri- 

 ters say they can get more surplus honey 

 when a swarm is compelled to build combs 



in the brood-chamber than when given foun- 

 dation or combs; but that is not my experi- 

 ence. In 1901 I gave six or eight shaken 

 swarms, that were very strong, brood- 

 frames having- only starters or half an inch 

 of foundation under the top-bar; but I found 

 such did not store nearly as much surplus 

 as those given full sheets of foundation or 

 old combs; and out of all there were not 

 half a dozen good brood-combs — nearly all 

 was drone comb. So I find it much better 

 to " shake " on to full frames of foundation 

 well wired to shaking into empty hives. 



But foundation has its drawbacks or dis- 

 advantages, or is not wholly satisfactory as 

 a preventive of swarming-. During the 

 present season I shook some fifty or sixty 

 colonies into hives with foundation. Some 

 eight or ten of these swarmed out a day or 

 two later, some of them without touching- 

 the foundation, while others drew it out a 

 little and then decamped. 



As my queens' wings were all clipped, 

 some of the queens returned with a few 

 bees with them while other hives remained 

 silent. Where the bees are content to stay 

 on foundation they usually do well, al- 

 though, if the queen is old or poor, they 

 will frequently start a little brood and a 

 few queen-cells, and then swarm again. 



I have had the best results from "sha- 

 ken " swarms when shaken on to old combs 

 carried over from the previous year, or 

 from hives where the bees died during the 

 winter orspring. If these combs contain con- 

 siderable honey it does no harm. I think 

 I should prefer to have them about half full 

 of honey. Last year I g-ave one such forced 

 swarm a hive full of combs that were near- 

 ly solid with honey, and they did nicely. 

 But if the combs are quite free of honey, 

 and you have a good-sized swarm, and hon- 

 ey is plentiful in the fields, they will soon 

 have enough. 



One thing- you must never give them, and 

 that is brood; for my experience has been 

 that, if they have only a little brood g-iven 

 them, they are sure to swarm out. I have 

 tried many times to make them stay when I 

 had given them a little brood, but, so far as 

 I remember, without success. One would 

 suppose that, if a hive had eight combs of 

 brood, and you were to take away all but 

 one, and give them seven dry combs in lieu 

 of those you have taken, they would be con- 

 tent to give up swarming, but I do not find 

 it so. They seem, somehow, to be tired of 

 tending babies, and the very thought of 

 there being any in the hive digusts them, 

 and they will not stay. This, of course, 

 refers to colonies that have the swarmiflg 

 fever; so while we may give forced swarms 

 combs having more or less honey brood 

 must he all itunoved. In from ten days to 

 two weeks I find about one in every eight 

 or ten such swarms is building queen-cells 

 and getting ready to swarm. A small part 

 of natural swarms will do the same if hived 

 on old combs, I believe; so we must look 

 out for them, and, if necessary, give them 

 another "shake." 



