24 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[July, 



bees, as -well as all animated creation are f^ov- 

 erned, we had better not interfere. About ibree 

 weeks before we wish to swarm our bees, we re- 

 move the queens from three or four of our most 

 prosperous colonies, by taking a comb on which 

 the queen is seen, with all the adhering bees. 

 Place this comb in an empty hive to one side. 

 Insert a division board to economize the heat in 

 our little colony. Confine the bees to the hive 

 by tacking a small piece of wire cloth over the 

 entrance. Set the hive containing this small 

 colony, which we will now call a nucleus, 

 wherever you wish it to I'emain for the season. 

 On the evening of the fourth day remove the 

 wire from the entrance, and allow the bees to 

 tiy. A great many will return to the hive on 

 the old Ktand, but enough will remain to care for 

 the queen during her temporary absence. On 

 the eighth day, after the removal of the queen, 

 give the hive a thorough examination, to see 

 how many qi;een cells you have at your disposal. 

 The ninth day, for every queen cell that can be 

 removed without injury, fonn a nucleus, minus 

 those in possession of the old queens. Be very 

 careful when forming those miniature colonies 

 that you do not remove the queens from the old 

 stock. Confine the bees as above described, and 

 liberate on the evening of the fourth day. On 

 the tenth day proceed to cut out the queen cells. 

 In doing this it is best to cut round the cell an 

 inch or more, so as to avoid cutting into them. 

 Be very careful not to jar or jam them in any 

 way. Cut a like place in the comb of each 

 nucleus, just large enough to receive the cell, 

 and hold it in place. Put the cell so it will hang 

 in the same position it did before removal. 'I'ake 

 the old queens from the nixcleus (giving each of 

 them — the nuclei — a cell), and restore them to 

 the old hives from which you have removed the 

 cells. To do this, confine them in what we call 

 a queen cage, made by taking a piece of wire 

 cloth, (No. 10 is a very good size for this 

 purpose) and bend it round your finger and press 

 one end together. Confine the queen by stop- 

 ping up the opposite end with a i^aper wad. Put 

 the cage through the top bars of the frames in 

 the centre of the hive, and leave her there con- 

 fined for forty-eight hours, at the end of which 

 time she is usually well received. By carefully 

 removing the paper from the end of the cage, if 

 the weather has been favorable, nearly all your 

 nuclei wdl be found to be in possession of 

 a fertile queen, by the time the white clover 

 comes into blossom. This is the time we swarm 

 our bees, so they will have amj^le time to fill 

 their hives, and if the season is favorable, store 

 a nice lot of surplus honey. Two or three days 

 before swarming our bees, if any of our nuclei 

 have not bees enough, we strengthen them by 

 taking a comb or two from some of our strongest 

 and most prosperous colonies, and shake or 

 brush the bees from the comb a foot or so in 

 front of the nucleus we wish to aid. The old 

 bees will return to the parent stock. The young 

 bees never having flown from the hive, knowiu"- 

 no other home, will enter the nucleus. When 

 we wish to swarm our bees, we take a set of 

 empty fiamcs to any hive that is strong in num- 

 bers, which we will call No. 1. Open the nive 



and smoke the bees as above described. Lift 

 out the frames one by one till you tind the queen. 

 Set the comb on which she is seen to one side, 

 with all the adhering bees ; then shake or brush 

 the bees off" of the rest of the comb in front of 

 the hive. Proceed in this way till you have all 

 the bees in the front of the hive on the old stand. 

 Take the comb on which the queen was seen, 

 place it in the centre of the hive with all the ad- 

 hering bees, and fill up the space on either side 

 with your empty frames ; now, take the No. 1 

 brood combs to one of your nuclei, No. 2. Re- 

 move the division board, place the comb of the 

 nucleus in the centre of the hive and fill up the 

 hive with the combs taken from No. 1, these 

 combs containing brood in all stages of develop- 

 ment, from the egg to the fully developed bees 

 just emerging from their cells. No. 2 will soon 

 be almost as populous as hive No. 1 before the 

 removal of the combs. The bees in No 1 re- 

 maining on the old stand are not confused by 

 a change of position, and will proceed to build 

 comb in every respect like a natural swarm. We 

 have had swarms, made in this way, store 7) 

 pounds in boxes, besides an abundance for win- 

 ter needs. 



By the above method of artificial swarming, 

 we avoid the trouble, vexation and delay, to say 

 nothing of the danger of introducing queens to 

 strange bees, as each colony retains possession 

 of its own queen respectively. Some may 

 say, "I fail to see where this last method of 

 swanning is superior to that first de.scribed." 

 Patience, friends, and I will endeavor to ex- 

 plain wherein it is superior. In natural swarm- 

 ing the first or prime swarm leaves about the 

 time the queen cells are sealed over. Eight days 

 after the cells are closed up the young queen is 

 ready to leave her cell. It is usually from five 

 to six days before she leaves the hive in search 

 of a drone, and from two to three days after 

 this, if successful, before she begins laying eggs, 

 making fifteen days at least that the parent hive 

 is without a laying queen, to say nothing about 

 the delay caused by after swarming and bad 

 weather. A prolific queen will lay from two to 

 three thousand eggs per day, but we will put it 

 at the first figures of two thousand per day, 

 making an increase of thirty thousand bees, a 

 very large swarm, which, if the season is favor- 

 able, is equivalent to thirty pounds of honey, at 

 a very modest estimate ; selling our honey at 35 

 cents per pound (often SO to 35), it amounts to 

 iS;7.50 over and above what we would have 

 secured had we let our bees swarm naturally. 

 Thus you see it pays us for our extra trouble. 

 Our bees began swarming the 12th of this month. 

 Who can beat this, this season? If any man 

 who reads this has a more successful method of 

 swarming bees than I have endeavored to de- 

 scribe, I for one would be liappyto hear from 

 him. Henry S. See. 



iJvansburg, Pa. 



Vigilance and neatness are for ever in requisi- 

 tion, and the care of bees, like all other jjrofita- 

 ble business, cannot be pursued to any advantage 

 unless it receive daily and minute attention. 



