108 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



THE VARIOUS PHASES OF THE SWARMING 

 PROBLEM CONSIDERED 



Caring for the Brood from a Shaken Swarm; Re- 

 moving the Queen and Destroying the Cells 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER 



(A short time ago in one of our letters to Dr. 

 Miller we expressed the wish that he would tell us 

 more fully than he had explained in the various 

 •Straws what he knew about the prevention of swarm- 

 ing for the production of comb honey — that is to 

 isay, we desired him to give us in an article his 

 latest revised ideas on the subject. Probably no man 

 in the United States who is a producer of comb hon- 

 ey has given this more earnest and thorough atten- 

 tion than the sage of Marengo. The article will speak 

 for itself. — Ed.] 



I am requested by the editor to tell what 

 is the best way to prevent swarming. I 

 don't know, because there may be some plan 

 that I know nothing about that is away 

 ahead of any thing I know. But as I have 

 been fighting bitterly against swarming dur- 

 ing my whole beekeeping life, it may be 

 that I can say something that may be useful 

 to those of less experience. 



Swarming can be prevented — at least for 

 a time; but I question whether there is any 

 profitable plan of treatment that will allow 

 us to say : " There is a colony which has 

 been so treated that it is absolutely certain 

 not to have any thought of swarming dur- 

 ing the present season." Even when a colo- 

 ny throws off a natural swarm, although the 

 rule is that (leaving out of account after- 

 swarms) neither swarm nor mothei"-colony 

 will swarm again till another year, yet 

 there are exceptions to the rule. But those 

 exceptions are so rare in most places that 

 if they should all be allowed to abscond the 

 loes would not be great. It is probably safe 

 to say that a colony can be so managed that 

 il will be just as safe from swarming as a 

 colony that has already swarmed naturally. 



One plan of such management is the well- 

 known one of shake swarming. This is i-eal- 

 ly anticipated swarming, as the plan is 

 merely to take away all brood, leaving the 

 bees in the condition of a natural swarm. 

 As the bees sometimes desert when left en- 

 tirely without brood, one frame of brood 

 may be left for three or four days, or until 

 the queen gets fairly started in one or more 

 of the other frames. It has the advantage 

 over natural swarming, besides other ad- 

 vantages, that all the bees may be left with 

 the swarm. It has, however, the disadvan- 

 tage that taking away the brood weakens 

 the colony by just so many future workers. 

 It may be urged that bees do not go afield 

 till 16 days old, and so it will be from 16 

 to 37 days before the bees fi-om this brood 

 will become fielders — too late to count much 

 on the harvest. But the harvest may last 



beyond that. Besides, the department of 

 labor in which a worker engages is not al- 

 together a matter of age, but depends to 

 some extent on the needs of the colony. 

 Each young bee that emei'ges to-day may 

 liberate one of its older sisters for field- 

 work, whether that older sister be more or 

 less than 16 days old. 



But with shake-swarming there is a way 

 of recouping half the loss caused by taking 

 away brood. When the first lot of colonies 

 are shaken, say half or less than half of the 

 apiaiy, pile up the beeless brood three, four, 

 or more stories high, over colonies that need 

 not be very strong. Then eight days later, 

 when the brood in these piles is sealed, shake 

 a second lot, and, instead of giving them 

 emi^ty combs, give them the sealed brood 

 from the piles, shaking off all the bees in 

 front of tlie hive which was under the pile. 

 So far as I have tried it, these frames of 

 sealed brood work just the same as emjity 

 combs. 



It is often said that a queen of the current 

 season's rearing will not swarm until she 

 has wintered over. That depends. If a 

 colony is fully in the swai'ming humor, hav- 

 ing cells well started, and the old queen is 

 exchanged for a j^oung one, the colony will 

 just as promptly swarm with the young one, 

 even though she may not have been laying 

 a week. But if by any means the colony 

 becomes queenless, and rears its own queen, 

 or if a ripe cell be given when it is made 

 queenless, the resulting young queen will 

 not swarm that season. In general, if a 

 colony be kept ten days without a laying 

 queen, and a young queen be then given, 

 either a laying queen or a virgin, there will 

 be no swarming. But it must be remem- 

 bered that rare exceptions with these young 

 queens will occur. They are probably more 

 likely to occur with Italians than with 

 blacks. The later in the season the young 

 queen is reared, the less likelihood of an ex- 

 ception. 



A way, then, to prevent swarming is to 

 remove all queens (at the beginning of the 

 clover hai'vest in clover regions) and ten 

 daj'S later destroy all queen-cells but one. 

 Or, better still, destroy all cells, and give a 

 3'oung laying queen. 



For those who are desirous of improving 

 their bees, this plan of never allowing queens 

 more than a year old has a serious objec- 

 tion. It gives no adequate ojiportunity to 

 test the value of a queen as a breeder, for 

 the credit of a crop must be divided between 

 the two queens that have furnished the 

 workers. A compromise plan must then be 

 followed, and the one generally followed by 

 the writer may here be given. 



As soon as there is any suspicion that the 



Cjnlwu?d oil pige /,1S 



