AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



399 



Manapffleiit at Swarming Time. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A letter recently to hand, reads as 

 follows : 



" Is the plan of giving each colony a 

 laying queen, immediately after swarm- 

 ing, a good one ? Please answer 

 through the American Bee Journai.." 



As I do not consider the plan a good 

 one, I will try to give my reasons for so 

 thinking, as requested. 



Years ago we were told that no colony 

 should go without a laying queen for a 

 single day, if it were possible to give 

 them one, and plans of introducing 

 queens which required that the hive 

 should be queenless a few days previous, 

 have been severely criticised. 



We have also been told many times, 

 that the bee-keeper who wished to 

 secure the best results from his bees 

 should have a laying queen ready to 

 give each colony as soon as they 

 swarmed, as the time lost to them, by 

 rearing a queen is equivalent to a swarm 

 of bees. Being eager to know for my- 

 self all the pltins which would give the 

 best results, I have experimented largely, 

 and the truth of the statement, that the 

 time lost to the bees in rearing a queen 

 in natural swarming was equivalent to 

 a swarm of bees, is the first reason that 

 the plan has not been a success with me. 

 If it were bees that I was after, the 

 case would be different. 



With us, white clover yields enough 

 honey to keep the bees breeding nicely, 

 and prepares them so that they mainly 

 swarm from June 20th to July 1st. Our 

 honey harvest is principally from bass- 

 wood, which blooms from July 10th to 

 16th. Now, all who are familiar with 

 natural swarming know that the bees 

 are comparatively few in numbers in 

 the spring, and increase by the rapidly 

 increasing brood produced by the queen, 

 which, in due time, hatch into bees, un- 

 til a swarm is the result. By giving a 



laying queen to a colony immediately 

 after it has cast a swarm, we bring 

 about the same result (swarming) as be- 

 fore, or we place the bees in the same 

 condition. The only difference is, that, 

 having plenty of brood, they build up 

 I quicker, and are prepared to swarm in 

 a shorter time. As this second swarm- 

 ing, brought about by giving a laying 

 queen, comes right in our basswood 

 honey harvest, it cuts off the surplus 

 honey, for it is well known that bees 

 having the swarming fever do little or 

 no work in the section boxes : and, if 

 allowed to swarm, the object we have 

 sought after (section honey) is beyond 

 our reach. 



Having given my experience on this 

 point, let us see how the same colony 

 would work had we not given the bees a 

 laying queen. 



Eight days after the swarm has is- 

 sued, the iirst young queen will have 

 emerged from her cell, as a rule, when 

 the apiarist should remove all the other 

 queen-cells from the hive, so that second 

 swarming is entirely prevented. In ten 

 days more our young queen is ready to 

 lay, which is about the time basswood 

 begins to yield honey largely. 



During this period, between the time 

 the swarm Issued and the young queen 

 commences to lay, the bees, not having 

 any brood to nurse for the last half of 

 the time, consume but little honey; 

 hence, as fast as the young bees emerge 

 from the cells, they are filled with 

 honey, for bees not having a laying 

 queen or unsealed brood seldom build 

 comb in the sections. Thus, when the 

 young queen is ready to lay she finds 

 every available cell stored with honey. 

 At this point the instinct of the bees 

 teaches them that they must have brood 

 or they will soon cease to exist as a 

 colony, aud a general rush is made for 

 the sections. The honey from below is 

 carried above, so as to give the queen 

 room, and in a week we have as a result 

 the sections filled v/ith honey. I have 

 had such colonies fill and complete sec- 

 tion honey to the amount of 60 pounds 

 in from 8 to 12 days, while those to 

 which I had given a laying queen imme- 

 diately after swarming did little else but 

 swarm during the same time. Bear in 

 mind we are talking about producing 

 comb honey, not extracted. 



Different locations may give different 

 results ; still, I think that nearly all 

 sections give a large flow of honey at a 

 certain period during the season, rather 

 than a steady, continuous honey harvest 

 the whole season. 



My second reason is, that after bass- 



