THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



121 



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For The Americaa Bee Journal 



Artificial Swarms. 



BY A. G. HIIX, OF KENDALLVILLE, IND., 

 THE INVENTOR OF THE GAS-PIPE HONEY 

 EXTRACTOK AND THE WINTER BEE-HIVE. 



If we have only a few stocks of bees 

 and wish to increase them as much as 

 possible, it is very discouraging to wait 

 for natural swarms, as bees will some sea- 

 sons cluster out most of the time and not 

 •cast out a single swarm. Again, they will 

 often swarm and leave you even after you 

 have hived them once ; besides, you waste 

 a great deal of valuable time in watching 

 them. From several year's experience in 

 dividing, I find that artificial swarms work 

 just as well as natural ones, if they are 

 properly made, and it requires no more 

 time to make such than it does to hive a 

 natural one after it has clustered. I have 

 known bees frequently to increase from 

 one to seven good stocks in a season by 

 natural swarming, and cannot see any 

 reason why we cannot increase as much, 

 or even more, artificially, with the aid of 

 the movable frame and the extractor. 



WHEN TO TAKE FIRST SWARM. 



"When bees swarm naturally, the hive 

 must be crowded with bees, the combs must 

 contain a numerous brood advancing from 

 the egg to maturity, the bees must be ob- 

 taining honey either from flowers or arti- 

 ficial sources, and the w^eather warm and 

 pleasant. The bee-keeper should always 

 know that such is the case before he at- 

 tempts the operation. Nothing is gained 

 by dividing bees too early, or before they 

 are ready, for we have frequently divided 

 in the first days of July, and had them do 

 better than those we divided in May and 

 June, yet it is a great waste to let a stock 

 stand a few daj-s after it is in the proper 

 condition. No definite rule can be given, 

 hence every bee-keeper should study his 

 own bee-pasturage and learn from experi- 

 ence, and use his own judgment. 



HOW TO TAKE THE FIRST SWARM. 



No. 1 represents a stock of bees ready 

 to divide. Now, if it should swarm, the 

 old queen would leave, and most of the 

 bees — cluster on a tree and be hived in the 

 new hive, leaving the old stock with only 

 bees enough to feed the brood and to keep 

 it from chilling. By this arrangement, 

 we have all the working bees in the new 

 hive with the old queen, where thej-^ have 

 plenty of room to build comb, and the 

 queen is ready to deposit an egg in each 

 cell as fast as completed, while the old 

 hive is full of brood with bees enough to 

 •take care of it and rear the young queens, 

 and by the time this brood hatches out 

 and becomes old enough to work, the 



young queens are ready to lay. 3o 

 if we wish to reap tlie best results, we 



OLD STOCK NO. 1. 



must divide No. 1 as near natural swarm- 

 ing as possible. 



HOW TO FIND THE QUEEN. 



This is the most difficult part of the 

 work for a beginner, yet a little practice 

 makes it very easy. We often wonder 

 after we have found five or six black 

 queens (in one hour) and introduced as 

 many Italians, how we could look three 

 or four hours for the first queen we ever 

 saw without finding her. Use a veil, and 

 do not smoke the bees unless they are very 

 cross. Open the hive without the least 

 jar — take out the first comb, look it over 

 quickly, and set it in an empty hive close 

 by — proceed in this manner until you find 

 the queen or have removed all the combs 

 — then look the bees over carefully that 

 are left on the inside of the hive, keeping 

 them running from one side to the other 

 by stirring them with a quill or breathing 

 on them. A queen will often sit still 

 right before your eyes without your see- 

 ing her, but will be seen as soon as she 

 moves. So you should always keep the 

 bees moving that you are looking at, by 

 breathing upon them. Proceed to look 

 the combs over the second time — you need 

 not hurry, as the bees will hang on the 

 combs in clusters or bunches, and the 

 queen will be liid among them. The ob- 

 ject of hurrying the first time through 

 was to see the queen before she could 

 hide. Hold the combs perpendicularlj- 

 before your face, breathe on the bees and 

 make them run around on the opposite 

 side — then iurn the combs and drive them 

 again. Set the combs, as fast as you are 

 through with them, in the old hive jusl as 

 they were, and if you have not found the 

 queen yet, close up the hive and wait an 

 hour, and try again. Do not think you 

 will injure the bees by handling them so 

 much, for the practice will be of more 

 value to you than the injur}^ to the bees, 

 as they will work just as well half an 

 hour afterwards. 



