1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



979 



ed, destroy every one and run all the young- 

 bees in with the swarm; remove the old 

 queen with one comb and the adhering- bees, 

 and place her among- the remaining hatch- 

 ing brood in the old hive. When cells are 

 started in the swarm hive, destroy them 

 and pile the supers on the old hive. There 

 win be no swarming, as most of the bees 

 will have become field bees, and the combs 

 will now be empty to give room for the 

 queen again. This involves much work, and, 

 of course, is objectionable on that score ; 

 however, brushing alone will always stop 

 the swarming fever when there is a good 

 flow; otherwise, not. And, again, the pro- 

 cess of brushing does not put the bees in the 

 condition where the}' feel that they have 

 swarmed, except when thej' would have 

 swarmed in a few days anyhow. 



Second, a brushed swarm under proper 

 conditions will alwaj's be stronger than a 

 natural swarm, and gather more honey, be- 

 cause most of the working force will go 

 with it, and it is again strengthened bj' a 

 second drive. The queen is in better con- 

 dition to begin her laying duties; the combs 

 are better filled with brood, and there is 

 no storing in the brood-chamber. Many 

 brushed colonies in my home yard this year 

 have stored 64 pounds of section honey in 

 ]4 days, and the 10 shallow combs did not 

 contain half a pound of honey when the 

 supers were removed. 



Third, with me starters are not as good 

 as half-sheets of foundation, but do ver}-^ 

 well when foundation is scarce. In a shal- 

 low hive four-iifths of the comb is worker 

 size of cell; and, while it is hardly profita- 

 ble to produce wax and comb honej' simul- 

 taneously, still the drone can be used, and 

 is, I consider, no loss; yes, it is a fact that 

 bees secrete a good deal of wax during a 

 heavy flow, and in the brushed swarm it is 

 all used, and to good advantage. But with 

 all its great advantages and possibilities 

 some seem not to have gotten the hang or 

 knack of doing the work right, and I think 

 the fault lies mostly with us fellows who 

 have been familiar with the method for sev- 

 eral years. We take it for granted too oft- 

 ten that others know something of the mo- 

 dus operandi. Many fail to get good results 

 because every little detail is not observed. 

 We should be more explicit. 



I will say, in closing, that all who try 

 the brush-swarm method would do well to 

 observe the following details very closely: 

 First, don't brush unless it is very strong; 

 second, don't brush unless there is a good 

 flow, or to control the swarming fever, as 

 perhaps you will have to do at times; third, 

 be sure that the bees gorge themselves with 

 honey; fourth, if you don't leave a few old 

 bees in the old hive you must not shake out 

 the thin unsealed honey, for the young bees 

 use it as a substitute for water, and, of 

 course, the force left will all be needed to 

 nurse the brood; fifth, if you use any drawn 

 comb in the supers, and none in the brood- 

 chambers, you will catch some pollen. Un- 

 less an excluder is used, the queen will go 



above and lay in the sections that contain 

 drawn comb; sixth, don t use an excluder 

 if you can avoid it, as it tends to discourage 

 the bees from promptly entering the supers; 

 seventh, have your hive level and shaded; 

 eighth, be sure to reinforce the swarm with 

 another drive from the old hive within sev- 

 en days. 



Vigo, Texas, Nov. 8. 



THE NUCLEUS METHOD OF INCREASE VS. 

 SHOOK SWARMS. 



Shook Swarms Condemned. 



BY HOMER H. HYDE. 



JMr. Root: — I notice you call for expres- 

 sions on the shook-swarm method of increase 

 and controlling of swarming. I have had 

 several 3'ears' experience in difl'erent local- 

 ities in Texas, and my experience teaches 

 me to condemn shook swarms. My reasons 

 are that the old colony does not build up in 

 time for the later flows of hone^'; and, sec- 

 ond, the new colony is soon also weak from 

 the fact that it is without hatching bees for 

 about 24 days; and unless the queen is still 

 very vigorous the new colony is seldom in 

 the right condition to secure the best results 

 from the later flows. Now having condemn- 

 ed shook swarms I shall describe the meth- 

 od of increase and swarm prevention that 

 is yearly practiced in the apiaries of our 

 company. First, the season before, if possi- 

 ble, we have a good number of extra brood- 

 combs built out; next we see that all colo- 

 nies have good prolific queens, and go into 

 winter with plenty of honey. Brood-rear- 

 ing here usuallj' commences in earnest the 

 latter part of February, and by the middle 

 of March the colonies usually have their 

 brood-nests about filled with brood. If 

 honey is coming in (and it usually is) we 

 decide about how much increase we want 

 at each apiary and start cells accordingl}'. 

 Just before these cells are ripe we return to 

 each apiarj', and from each strong colony 

 that would be likely to swarm before April 

 10 we take two frames of bees and hatch- 

 ing brood, and insert in their places two of 

 the empty combs carried over. We place 

 these two frames of bees and brood on a 

 new stand, and give them a ripe cell in a 

 cell-protector, making as man}' new colonies 

 (or nuclei as they really are at this time) 

 as we wish increase at each apiar}' for the 

 year. We return to each apiary in a week 

 or ten days; and from all colonies showing 

 indicationsof swarming we draw two or more 

 frames of brood, inserting in their places 

 emptj' combs or frames of foundation, tak- 

 ing the combs of brood and adding to the 

 nuclei steirted. We continue this operation 

 at each yard every week or ten days until 

 the hone3'-flow opens up, which is usually 

 about April 10. Our experience is, that 

 once we have the colonies in the supers and 

 at work, there will be very few that will 

 care to swarm. Our object is to draw only 



