458 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aug. 1 



CONVERSATIONS WITH 



DOOLITTLE 



AT Borodino, New York. 



AFTER-SWARMING. 



"Have you been troubled Mvith after- 

 swarms more than usual this year, Mr. Doo- 

 httle? I have never had so many in my life. 

 They just kept coming and coming, all through 

 haying time, till I got completely tired of 

 them. What do you do with yours when they 

 come so fast?" 



"Well, Mr. Barber, it is a rare thing that I 

 have an after-swarm at all these years. With 

 the plan of doing entirely away with swarm- 

 ing, as given in a ' A Year's Work in an Out- 

 apiary, ' I do not have any swarms at all, un- 

 less, perchance, I get so crowded for time 

 that I do not keep up with the bees " 



"Well, you needn't think that all the bee 

 world is as far advanced as you and a few 

 others are. The majority of the bee-keepers 

 have more or less swarming. What did you 

 do when you did have after-swarms?" 



"That depended very much on my wants; 

 and the whole thing hinges upon the wants 

 of the apiarist, locality, etc. If the apiarist 

 desires increase instead of honey, then he 

 probably can do no better than to hive the 

 after-swarms in separate hives, if his locality 

 will permit these small swarms to obtain 

 stores enough for winter. If he has empty 

 combs to give those coming out near the close 

 of the season, it will help them much by way 

 of allowing them to store honey enough to 

 winter upon; for such small late swarms rare- 

 ly fill their hives with comb, and have honey 

 enough for winter. If, on the other hand, 

 the apiarist desires honey instead of increase, 

 then he should not allow any of those after- 

 swarms to issue; and if any do come out they 

 should be returned; for with the after-swarm 

 goes all prospect of surplus honey from the 

 colony from which it issued, while, if pre- 

 vented, the old colony is usually much better 

 for winter, and will often store a surplus be- 

 sides." 



" You say after-swarms should not be al- 

 lowed to issue if honey rather than increase 

 is desired. This is my case exactly. Now, 

 how can I prevent their issuing, as they did 

 this year?" 



"I used to employ two plans for doing this, 

 according to where I wished the old colony 

 to remain. If the old colony was to remain 

 on its former stand, the prime swarm being 

 hived in a new location, then I retained the 

 after-swarms by chpping off the queen-cells, 

 for all after-swarms come because there is a 

 plurality of queens in the hive, all but one 

 of which are held in the cells till the time for 

 the going-out of the after-swarm arrives, 

 when, during the bustle of this excitement, 

 the guards abandon the cells, and many 

 queens often go with the swarm, especially 

 with a third or fourth swarm. Some tell us 

 to cut out the queen-cells five or six days 

 after the first or prime swarm issues, cutting 

 out all but the best one; but I find that, where 



this is done, the bees often rear more queens 

 from the brood which still remains young 

 enough to be transformed into a queen, and 

 swarming later on is the result. My way 

 was to wait eight days after the first swarm 

 came out, when, as a rule, the first young 

 queen would have emerged from. her cell, 

 when all remaining queen-cells were cut off, 

 thus making a sure thing of it; for after eight 

 days there is no brood young enough to be 

 changed into a queen, should the bees so de- 

 sire. To make sure that all queen-cells are 

 off, the bees should be shaken from each 

 frame, for, if this is not done, some cells may 

 be overlooked, and an after-swarm be the 

 result." 



"But don't you always leave the old colo- 

 ny on the stand it occupied all the season?" 



"No. Very many of our best bee-keepers 

 who still adhere to natural swarming move 

 to a new stand the hive from which a prime 

 swarm has just issued, hiving the swarm in 

 a new hive on the old stand, as this gives all 

 the field bees to the swarm, and tends to 

 stop after-swarms from such removed colo- 

 ny. However, even this plan is not a sure 

 preventive for after-swarming. When I wish- 

 ed the new or first swarm to occupy the old 

 stand, as I usually did, I proceeded to remove 

 the combs from the old hive while the bees 

 were out in the air or clustering on a tree, 



E lacing these combs in a box with all the ad- 

 ering bees on them. The old hive was then 

 supplied with empty frames or those filled 

 with comb foundation, or frames of empty 

 comb, according as I had before ordained, 

 when the super was put back and the hive 

 closed up as it was to remain. The swarm 

 was now hived here, where it came from, 

 which gave it an advantage over a swarm 

 hived on a new stand, in that it had many 

 more bees, and therefore gave a better yield 

 of section honey." 



"What about the combs in the box?" 

 "The box of combs, brood, and bees, I 

 carried to a stand I wished a colony to occu- 

 py, and placed them in a new hive. During 

 the remainder of the day quite a few of the 

 old or field bees would go from this new hive 

 for forage; but when returning, instead of 

 coming to this new hive which they left, they 

 would return to the swarm on the old stand, 

 and thus strengthen it still more. The colo- 

 ny left on the old combs in the new hive on 

 the new stand is that much reduced, so that, 

 by the next morning, the bees feel 'poor in 

 sjDirit, ' and ready to give up all thoughts of 

 atter-swarming, so wnl receive any thing in 

 the shape of a queen. I could then give 

 them a laying queen, a virgin queen, or a 

 ripe queen-cell, just as I happened to have 

 on hand, and when they would destroy all 

 the queen-cells of their own, with no thought 

 of further swarming that year." 



CONVENTION NOTICE. 



The Pennsylvania State Bee-keepers' Association 

 will hold its next convention in Lebanon, Sept. 8 and 

 9. An excellent protrram is being prepared, and will 

 be announced later in GLEANINGS. 



Middletown, Pa. A. F. Satterthwait. 



