THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



blossoms in quest of coveted sweets, many of 

 the workers loiter at home idle, well gorged 

 with honey, awaiting in vain the forthcoming 

 of a swarm. Besides, by repeatedly sending 

 forth- after-swarms, the parent stock becomes so 

 greatly depopulated, as to be unable to appro- 

 priate properly the supplies yielded by the sur- 

 rounding districts, abundant though these may 

 be for a brief period. Not unfrequently, too, 

 this reiterated swarming results in leaving the 

 old colony queenless — an event always disad- 

 vantageous and sometimes disastrous. After- 

 swarms, moreover, are commonly so weak that 

 if set up as independent colonies, they fail to 

 fill their hives with combs, and are unable to 

 lay up stores sufficient for their wants in the 

 ensuing winter. 



Efforts have been made to overcome the dis- 

 advantages arising from repeated afterswarm- 

 ing, by uniting several small swarms so as to form 

 one pretty strong stock. But this can scarcely 

 be regarded as a rational process ; for what 

 avails it to deal thus with afterswarms, if their 

 production ruins the parent colony, or so 

 greatly reduces it that it can yield no surplus ? 

 Prevention is here also better than cure; and for 

 this reason we transpose parent stocks with the 

 first swarms, after these have issued, in order to 

 prevent after-swarming as much as possible. 



We should resolve to content ourselves with 

 prime swarms, and endeavor to suppress subse- 

 quent swarming. If a swarm has issued from 

 a movable comb-hive, the queen ceds remain- 

 ing shou!d all be destroyed or removed, save 

 one, on the sixth or seventh clay. To destroy 

 them earlier, as for instance on the second or 

 third clay, would simply be labor lost, for the 

 workers still finding suitable brood at hand, 

 would immediately start others ; but if the re- 

 moval be effected at the right time no after- 

 swarming can take place. If the owner has 

 not courage or leisure to open his hive and 

 overhaul the combs in quest of queen cells, let 

 him destroy as many on the second or third clay 

 as can be seen at a cursory glance, and imme- 

 diately insert one containing an embryo queen 

 so nearly mature that she will probably emerge 

 in a day or two. When the queen thus intro- 

 duced is hatched, all other queen cells in the 

 hive will be promptly destroyed, and no swarm 

 can issue. 



In common cottage hives it is not an easy 

 matter to destroy the supernumerary queen 

 cells. Adding surplus honey boxes on the top 

 or at the sides, or inserting an eke below, will 

 not always prevent swarming ; and when the 

 impulse once gets possession of the bees, even 

 decapitating drone brood or cutting it out, will 

 not then always nullify their inclination to se- 

 cede, as experience has often shown. There is, 

 nevertheless, a process available, by which the 

 production of these ruinous afterswarms can 

 certainly be prevented, even in cottage hives. 

 A temporary reduction of the population is an 

 effectual counter-check, and enables the bee- 

 keeper to accomplish his purpose. So soon as 

 teeting and quawking is heard in a hive, remove 

 it from its stand, turn it up and set an empty hive 

 on it — winding a piece of muslin around the line 

 of junction, so as to prevent beea from getting 



out. Then rap gently on the lower hive for 

 about twelve minutes. The young queen being 

 very agile, will speedily run up into the upper 

 hive, and be followed by a large part of the 

 workers. Now replace the old stock precisely 

 in its former position, and you have it reduced 

 to a non-swarming condition. But if the young 

 queen were now removed from the swarm, 

 aud the bees allowed to return immediately to 

 the parent stock, the work would prove to 

 be labor in vain ; for we should soon hear 

 renewed teeting and quawking, and the 

 driving out would have to be repeated. A dif- 

 ferent disposition must therefore be made of the 

 driven swarm. It must be placed either close 

 at the side, immediately in the rear, or directly 

 on the top of the parent hive, and remain there 

 till the following morning. By that time all 

 the supernumerary queens and royal nymphs 

 will have been destroyed and thrown out, the 

 removal of so large a portion of the population 

 having effectually quenched the disposition to 

 swarm. The bees of the driven swarm will 

 gradually desert their hive and return to their 

 old quarters, let ving only a small number with 

 the forsaken queen, which will also return home 

 when she is finally taken from them. This 

 process is even less troublesome than the search 

 for and removal of the queen in a populous mo- 

 vable comb hive. 



But with all his care, a beginner may happen 

 to get some of these undesired afterswarms. 

 This, for instance, may be the case if unfavora- 

 ble weather sets in after the parent stock and 

 the first swarm have been transposed, in which 

 case only comparatively few bees can leave the 

 parent stock and join the swarm ; or it may oc- 

 cur also, when it happens that the parent hive 

 contains a large proportion of young bees, just 

 hatched, and which have not yet flown out. 

 Hence, it may be interesting to inquire, what 

 shall the beginner do with afterswarms obtain- 

 ed thus contrary to his own desire ? 



In the first place, if such after- swarm has 

 perchance united with a first swarm issuing at 

 the same time from another hive, he should not 

 undertake to separate them The queen of the 

 afterswarm will at once be killed, and the two 

 swarms will unite in peace. 



Secoudly, if he has several populous and well- 

 stored movable comb hives, and designs to 

 stock several more of the same description, let 

 him place the swarm in a uucleus hive of the 

 same size of frames, give it two or three frames 

 with capped brood, and one frame with sealed 

 honey. Now set the nucleus where he designs 

 the colony to remain permanently, and proceed 

 to build up a stock by inserting brood combs 

 from his populous colonies, and transferring to 

 a larger hive as soon as this becomes necessary. 



Thirdly, afterswarms may also be united 

 with each other, and thus made to constitute 

 one strong colony. To this end, dig a hole in 

 the ground, tight or ten inches in diameter, and 

 twelve inches deep. At dusk set over this 

 hole the hive containing the bees you intend to 

 unite ; then lift it about six inches high aud set 

 it clown again with a sudden jar, that the bees 

 may drop into the hole, taking care that the 

 edge of the hive touch the ground equally all 



