THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



345 



OBJECTIONS TO CAGING OR RICMOVING 

 THK OURKN. 



If wecag-e the queen, and release her 

 a certain time afterwards, we can 

 hardly expect a much better success. 

 Mr. Getaz recommends the following- 

 manipulation: The queen is caged a 

 little before swarming time, the queen 

 cells are destroyed, and the queen re- 

 leased a few days later, but not until 

 the colony has been at least a few days 

 without unsealed brood. I tried this 

 plan several times, and had no success. 

 Dr. Miller reports in his book, page 

 179, no case of success with this plan. 

 In otlier localities the plan may work 

 better. Mr. Getaz explains his success 

 in the following way: "During these 

 four days or more without unsealed 

 brood, the young bees having no brood 

 to feed, take to the field, and become 

 actually field bees, notwithstanding 

 their age, or rather youngness." I 

 am sure this idea is not based on facts. 

 It is proven by many experiments that 

 under no circumstances will a worker 

 bee fly out of the hive before she is 

 about 12 days old. If this were not so, 

 and a young bee could become a field 

 bee, if not enough brood is present, the 

 swarming- impulse would never appear 

 in any colony. If the plan succeeds, 

 the reason is, that, during that 10 or 12 

 days, while the queen is caged, a large 

 number of cells will get empty by the 

 hatching- of young bees. Now the 

 queen is released; if the bees have not 

 filled these cells with honey, and if the 

 queen is prolific, she can lay many 

 more eggs than she was laying 21 days 

 before. The nurse bees now have 

 enough larvae to feed, and no surplus 

 of chyle is produced, at least not 

 enough to arouse the swarming im- 

 pulse. Till all these cells are occupied 

 with brood, dangerof swanningf is past. 

 Another way is to remove the queen 

 entirely, and allow the colony to raise 

 a young one, at the proper time destroy- 

 ing the surplus queen-cells. By this 

 plan the colony is weakened consider- 

 ably, even more than with the caging 

 plan. It is said that a young queen, 

 if fertilized, will not swarm in the first 

 year of her life. Gravenhorst and Dr. 

 Miller say she will not swarm if reared 

 in the same colony, but, if in a colony 

 an old queen is exchanged for a young 

 one, such a queen may swarm. Baron 

 Berlepsch said that young queens of 

 the brown German race would never 

 swarm the first year, while with the 

 Italian race we can't depend on this 

 rule. Probably this difference in the 



race, and the interruption of many 

 days in brood-rearing:, are the real 

 causes of these dift'erences. 



The proper way to prevent swarm- 

 ing, when queen cells are already 

 started, is to satisfy the swarming im- 

 pulse by making them swarm artifi- 

 cially. This can be done indifferent 

 ways, if some increase is wanted. If 

 no increase is desired, one of the sim- 

 plest ways is that known as the "shook- 

 swarni system. " By manipulatincr the 

 old hive, the whole force of bees can be 

 thrown in the swarm on the old stand. 

 This method has generally given satis- 

 faction, but Mr. Getaz has the objection 

 "that a new brood nest has to be built, 

 and the work, honey and time spent 

 thus would be more profitable in the 

 super." This seems reasonable, but 

 just this building of a new brood nest 

 consumes the surplus chyle and cures 

 the swarming impulse. If this surplus 

 chyle IS not removed, the bees do more 

 or less building. The plan has another 

 advantage: As there are no empty 

 cells in the brood nest, the gathered 

 honey must be stored in the super, and 

 there is done the most comb building; 

 in fact, in the brood nest no more cells' 

 are built than are necessary for the 

 queen to lay eggs. According to my 

 experience, this building of a brood 

 nest is clear gain. This shook-swarm 

 plan has another important advantage. 

 During spring we can use large brood 

 chambers, in which the colonies build 

 up much better without any spreadino- 

 of the brood and other manipulations'^ 

 When the honey flow commences the 

 bees are forced into the supers by mak- 

 ing the artificial swarm and using a 

 contracted brood nest. 



Even this building of a new brood 

 nest can be avoided in such localities, 

 where a less radical management is 

 sufficient to prevent swarming. For 

 15 years, I have known of tw'^o such 

 ways. 



1. The old colony is removed from 

 its stand and a new hive containing 

 some empty combs and some starters 

 is set in its place. From the old col- 

 ony we take a brood comb with one or 

 more queen cells, and set it between 

 two empty combs in the new hive. By 

 brushing or shaking-, more bees from 

 the old hive are added to this swarm, 

 being careful not to get the queen in 

 with the bees. (It will be best to cao-e 

 the old queen during the operation). 

 The section supers are given to the old 

 stand, and the parent colony having 

 the old queen is set to one side, or on 



