1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



205 



KEEPING 1500 COLONIES FROM SWARMING. 



"My name is O. B. Metcalfe, and I should 

 like lo have you tell me how to keep my 1500 

 colonies of Italian and hybrid bees from 

 swarming next spring. Here in New Mexico 

 I can get no skilled help, with the exceptif»n, 

 perhaps, of one man who knows something 

 of bees, so I shall have to do most of the 

 work myself. Can you refer me to some 

 good treatise on the control of swarming? " 



"I knotvof no plan for controlling swarm- 

 ing which has been put into treatise form, 

 and I am not sure that any one in the world 

 knows of any plan which will do away with 

 all swarming under all circumstances, or 

 during all seasons and in all localities." 



"Then you do not think that I shall be 

 able to keep my 1500 colonies from swarm- 

 ing?" 



"I do not think that there is a person in 

 the United States who could keep all those 

 colonies from swarming in a season condu- 

 cive to excessive swarming ; but I do think 

 that, in seasons where the desire to swarm 

 is only ordinary, swarming can be nearly 

 prevented, and also reduced con.siderably in 

 a_ year when the tendency is toward exces- 

 sive swarming. However, allow me to say 

 that one man would have better prospects of 

 accomplishing what he desires along the line 

 of swarm C(mtrol with 500 colonies than he 

 would with 1500." 



"I presume that is right; but in the ab- 

 sence of help to be depended on, I must 

 do the best I can alone, or with what little 

 help I can get. I had thought of making 

 a nucleus from every strong colony, some- 

 thing after the plan you gave on page UaS 

 of the November 15th issue, 1907; but I wish 

 you would tell me what would be the result 

 if the expected harvest did not come." 



" The result would be very nearly the 

 same as it would be in following any similar 

 plan when the crop fails ; that is, we should 

 have all of our labor for nothing, or very 

 nearly so." 



"But might it not be worse than this? 

 Might not our colonies be better off if we 

 had not touched them if no honey-fiow hap- 

 pens to come? " 



" Possibly. But I can hardly foresee how 

 this could happen here in Central New York. 

 Tell me what yuu are driving at." 



" Last spring our colonies were storing 

 from one to three pounds a day according to 

 the scale-hive, just prior to May 21 ; but on 

 the night of that day it froze both the mes- 

 quite and the willow, and nothing bloomed 

 to do any good for a month." 



' ' Whew ! I thought our late frosts here in 



New York were bad enough; but we have 

 had no frost so proportionally late in the 

 season. It is rare that we have to make any 

 eft" )rt at stopping swarming here before 

 June 5 to 15 ; and after that date I have 

 never known a frost to kill anything except 

 so)ue tender plant close to the ground, on 

 some very low land subject to a white frost 

 on the least provocation. This would not 

 injure any of our nectar-producing flora." 



"Well, suppose you did have such a frost 

 just after you had formed your one-frame 

 nucleus with the queen, and one comb of 

 brood and bees taken from a strong colony 

 to keep it from swarniing. What would 

 have been the effect on such a nucleus? " 



"If such a frost should come the first 

 night after the nucleus was made, it would 

 be injured if many of the bees had returned 

 to their old home; but as the most of the 

 bees so separated will remain with their old 

 queen when she is with them, I should not 

 expect any great loss of brood in the nucle- 

 us. If cold freezing weather held on for 

 three or four days the loss of brood might 

 be greater; but, generally, after one of our 

 late frosts it warms up the next day, or the 

 day after, and, during such a short spell of 

 cold weather, the bees ' burn ' honey enough 

 to keep up the necessary heat to protect their 

 brood, so no material loss is noticed." 



"But what if, on the second day, the bees 

 had killed all the drones just before the 

 young queens went out on their wedding- 

 flight? " 



"I never knew of such a thing in all my 

 forty years' experience, and I doubt if such 

 could have been known even in New Mexi- 

 co — not but that I think your bees did kill 

 their drones, but I do not think they would 

 had you been following the plan as given on 

 the page of Gleanings referred to. If I 

 mistake not, your drones were killed while 

 the old queen was in the hive, so it was not 

 necessary for the bees to keep the drones ; 

 but with queens just ready to mate, drones 

 to such a colony are as a bank account to a 

 man in time of famine, and would be as 

 carefully preserved. In fact, the bees would 

 preserve the drones just as carefully as they 

 would the queen, for just at this time drones 

 would be of as much value toward the fu- 

 ture welfare of the colony as the queen." 



"Possibly you are right. But how about 

 the ripe queen-cells? I noted that the freeze 

 put a stop to the swarming in 48 hours, and 

 that every queen-cell was destroyed." 



" If you raised your queen-cells from your 

 very best breeder, the colonies rearing such 

 queens would either be queenless or the 

 cells would be kept away from the laying 

 queen by queen-excluding metal; and, so far 

 as I ever knew, the bees would preserve 

 them through any cold spell at this stage of 

 the season. I have known of queen-cells be- 

 ing destroyed, drones killed off, and swarm- 

 ing postponed indefinitely during such a 

 cold spell in the swarming season ; but I 

 never knew of drones being killed in any 

 colony with a young queen just ready to 

 mate, nor of queen-cells being destroyed in 



