Apr. 15. 1912 



227 



(ScDDQWCBCPgSlllDCDm© \);^ D G Dd H) (D ® D D HG D ® 



At Borodino, New York 



INCREASING COLONIES. 



1 have nineteen colonies now, and would like to 

 increase to forty or more this year. Please tell me 

 how to do it. 



Kevil, Ky. J. G. Nance. 



This inquiry is quite unique; for out of 

 hundreds of letters I have received during 

 the pa"st ten years I have not had one of the 

 kind; but I have received scores during 

 that time asking how swarming could be 

 prevented. The majority of beekeepers are 

 looking more anxiously for a sure way to 

 keep down increase, and more especially 

 for something practical that requires only a 

 little work which will do away with all de- 

 sire to swarm on the part of our little pets. 

 [^1 recall that, during the season of 1873, I 

 desired to increase twenty colonies of bees 

 to forty, and to do it in such a way that I 

 could at the same time get a good crop of 

 comb honey. With this desire in mind I 

 searched all the bee literature I could find 

 in order to learn how I could best accom- 

 plish this: and, strange as it now seems, 

 nearly all who mentioned this matter ad- 

 vised doing it by natural swarming. Near- 

 ly every writer claimed that, where only 

 the first (or prime) swarm was allowed to 

 issue, more honey could be obtained from 

 the parent colony and the swarm than if 

 no increase was allowed, as the new swarm 

 would work with a vigor surpassing any 

 thing that could be brought about through 

 any non-swarming plan, or by any known 

 means of "artificial increase;" and by us- 

 ing this best of all known ways, both for 

 increase and a large yield of honey, colonies 

 could be doubled each year, which should 

 be enough to satisfy' any reasonable person. 

 And I concluded this was right, as, by dou- 

 bling each year, my '20 colonies would reach 

 the number of 640 in five years. 



Now, if Bro. Nance is of the opinion that 

 the best writers lived forty years ago, this 

 plan will be just what he wants, as it will 

 give him 38 colonies next fall, and " roll up 

 a surplus crop greater than can be gotten in 

 any other way." But the trouble with me 

 was that not one colony out of my twenty 

 would be satisfied with giving 07ifi/ the 

 prime swarm. So the afier-swarms kept 

 issuing when I was in the hayfield, when I 

 A-as at dinner, when I wanted to be at 

 church, before breakfast, after supper, and, 

 in the slang of to-day, "at almost any old 

 time," until I found that the parent colony 

 ga\e but little surplus. I tried all the plans 

 given to stop after-swarming, but without 

 success, till one night while lying awake 

 (this lying awake nights and planning for 

 the future is one of the symptoms of the 

 bee fever) , it came to me that no after- 

 swarm ever issued without the piping of the 

 first young queen that emerged from her 

 cell: and if all queen cells were cut early the 

 first morning after piping was heard at 

 night, all after-swarming would be prevent- 

 ed. After this conclusion I soon fell asleep. 



Waking refreshed, though not rid of that 

 bee fever, I soon treated four colonies by 

 shaking the bees from every comb in the 

 hive and pinching every queen cell found 

 in which I had heard piping the night be- 

 fore. I now watched operations. There 

 were no further swarms, and the bees were 

 working in the sections a week later better 

 than new swarms would have done. This 

 was what I practiced for the next twenty 

 years, and I had an average yield of over 80 

 lbs. of comb honey from each old colony. 



But Bro. Nance may prefer to have no 

 natural swarms at all, as do the rest of us 

 in this twentieth century; and if so, he will 

 find the following plan of increase one of 

 the best, detracting but little from the re- 

 sults of his non-swarming colonies: 



When the colonies begin to grow strong 

 in brood and bees, and before they contract 

 the swarming fever, take two frames of 

 emerging brood from any strong colony, or 

 one frame from each of two colonies, put- 

 ting them in an empty hive together with 

 two frames partly filled with honey, hav- 

 ing the two frames of brood between the 

 frames of honey, and putting a dummy 

 next to the comb on the vacant side of the 

 hive. Before putting them in the empty 

 hive, all bees should be shaken and brushed 

 ofT in front of the hives from which they 

 were taken, so that no queen will be taken 

 from her colony. The space left vacant by 

 thus taking these combs out is filled with 

 frames of comb, if possible: if not, with 

 frames of comb foundation. Now select an- 

 other of the stronger colonies. Put a queen- 

 excluder on it temporarily, and place on it 

 the hive already prepared, having the two 

 combs of emerging brood, which should be 

 allowed to remain two or three hours, dur- 

 ing which time the young bees will come up 

 from below in sufficient numbers to care 

 for the combs and brood. 



After this the hive should be placed on 

 the stand it is to occupy. Queens should 

 ha\e been previously reared, or purchased 

 for these colonies, so that laying queens can 

 be given them at dusk that night. A ripe 

 queen cell will answer; but a week or more 

 of time is lost where such cells are given. 

 These colonies can now be built up in any 

 way desired. I find that, if they are made 

 a little in advance of the swarming season, 

 as soon as the queen begins laying such 

 colonies will build from two to four nice 

 combs of the worker size of cells, if frames 

 having starters are given them. But it is 

 usually best to use frames filled with foun- 

 dation. I have made colonies in this way 

 with perfect success, clear up to the time of 

 the blooming of buckwheat. There is no 

 need of natural swarming for increase when 

 we can make as many colonies as we desire 

 in so easy a way. But such plans as these 

 are made possible only through the advent 

 of the queen-excluding metal. 



