SWARM CONTROL 185 



up as new supers are added, and more or less trouble will be 

 necessary to separate the frames containing brood from those 

 with honey only, at time of first extracting. 



If empty supers are placed underneath, no harm will result, 

 even though they be given some time in advance of when they 

 are needed, and the extra room tends to keep down swarming. 



Swarm Control. — It often happens that the extracted honey 

 producer with his large hives has little difficulty from swarming, 

 and need give the matter little special attention. The method of 

 handling this matter most generally in use is known as the 

 Demaree method. As soon as the brood nest is getting sufficiently 

 crowded to require the addition of more room, the queen is 

 hunted out and a frame of brood, preferably the one on which 

 she is found, is lifted from the hive. An empty comb from the 

 hive body used as a super is exchanged for it. The queen will 

 then be on a frame of brood in a hive body of empty combs. A 

 queen excluder is then placed on top of this new body and the 

 old one already full of brood and honey is set on top of it in the 

 usual place. The queen is now provided with an abundance of 

 empty comb in which to lay. In fact her surroundings are simi- 

 lar to what they would be, had she recently come into possession 

 of a new hive in company with a swarm. The colony will build 

 up wonderfully in a short time, and not only will the desire to 

 swarm be eliminated, but a tremendous working force will be 

 present in the hive at the beginning of the honey flow. If addi- 

 tional room is provided as needed, further use of the excluder will 

 hardly be necessary and it can be removed after two or three 

 weeks. 



In addition to the above advantages, the brood will be in the 

 bottom of the hive, and the honey can be removed as fast as 

 ripened and taken to the extracting room. While other methods 

 of swarm control are practised to some extent in connection with 

 extracted honey production, this plan is most generally used. 

 It is also the simplest and surest in its results of any with which 

 the author is familiar. 



