THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



107 



fertile, broodiug will again be vigorously pro- 

 secuted, and the mass of the population will 

 thus be composed of young bees which arecon- 

 stitutionalljr best qualified to endure the rigors 

 of winter. If the stock be deficient in supplies, 

 it should he fed, while brooding, with starch- 

 syrup or some other cheap substitute for honey, 

 which will then be used for the nourishment of 

 the brood, leaving that of better quality in store 

 for their support in the winter. 



Afterswarms having young queens which 

 usually prove very prolific, are well fitted to 

 become the best store stocks next season. To 

 stimulate and aid them, I furnish them with as 

 much clean empty combs as I can — preferiing, 

 on that account, to put my early first swarms in 

 empty hives. In very warm weather, after- 

 swarms are apt to desert hives containing much 

 comb, wherefore I confine them after hiving, 

 with sufficient ventilation, and ^t them in a 

 cool place till evening. If the queen has been 

 captured, I place her in a cage as an additional 

 guarantee that the swarm shall not forsake its 

 assigned quarters ; and, to make assurance 

 doubly sure, I insert a piece of brood comb in 

 the hive before placing it on its stand in the 

 apiary. By selecting a brood comb containing 

 both eggs and young larvte, the possible loss of 

 the young cpieen will be rendered less damaging 

 than it otherwise Avould prove to be, because 

 queen-cells would be immediately started, and 

 all the energies of the population be dcA^oted to 

 honey-gathering, as there Avould be little brood 

 to nurse, and no combs to be built. 



Afterswarms, and the parent stock from 

 which they came, must be carefully watched to 

 see whether the young queens have not been 

 lost. In the case of the parent stock it is oft- 

 times very difficult to ascertain the fact, because 

 the workers, now accustomed to be without a 

 queen, scarcely manifest any consciousness that 

 their newly-hatched sovereign has failed to re- 

 turn. It is hence prudent to insert a piece of 

 suitable brood comb in every suspected stock, 

 that those really in want may have an oj^por- 

 tunity and the means to supply their loss. If 

 queen cells be started, we have conclusive 

 evidence of their destitute condition. We may 

 then either permit them to rear a queen, or in- 

 troduce a fertile one from a nucleus, if we have 

 such. The clear "silken sound" of the bees' 

 wing as they leave ; the rapidity of their de- 

 parture in hot haste for forage ; the large sup- 

 plies of pollen they carry in, and the size and 

 well-rounded proportions of the pellets, as well 

 as the general deportment of the population, 

 clearly indicate to an expert the presence of a 

 fertile queen. But when a colony has been 

 queenless for some time, and especially after a 

 fertile worker has commenced laying drone 

 eggs, indications are oft-times fallacious, and 

 •we may easily be deceived, even if brood comb 

 be inserted, for queen cells will seldom be 

 started when there are no young bees in the 

 hive. 



If afterswarms come late and are not strong, 

 it is not wise to hive them separately, as they 

 may not be able to collect stores enough for the 

 winter, even though furnished with empty 

 combs. It is better to unite them with some 



other stock ; and almost any one will be bene- 

 fitted by such reinforcement. The young queens 

 may be preserved in nuclei, and used to great 

 advantage in cases of queenlessness, or as sub- 

 stitutes for feeble old queens. 



Occasionally a strong stock which has yielded 

 a natural swarm, or from which a forced swarm 

 has been drummed out, fails to produce an 

 afterswarm, though still exceedingly populous; 

 an occurrence I much dislike. Brooding will 

 then be prosecuted with great energy in s'uch a 

 stock, the young queen being very prolific; and 

 as with us pasturage ceases to abound after the 

 grain crops are harvested, an enormous con- 

 sumption of honey folloAvs, without any opnor- 

 tunity to replenish the combs. The result is, 

 colonies very populous in the fall, but ill-pro- 

 vided for the coming winter. To prevent this, 

 I drain off a portion of the superabundant popu- 

 lation as early as practicable, by transposing 

 the hive Avith one much Aveaker ; or, if I have 

 none such, I take a fertile reserve queen Avith 

 her nucleus colony, place them in a hive re- 

 sembling that of the stock I design to tap, in- 

 sert empty combs enough to furnish the interior 

 well, then remove the strong stock to a dis- 

 tance, and sef the prepared hive in its stead. 

 The returning bees ha\'ing been queenless for 

 some time, or accustomed to the presence of an 

 infertile one, or of queen cells only, will readily 

 accept the fertile queen now introduced, so that 

 I never find it necessary to confine her even 

 temporarily. The bees thus tranferred from the 

 parent stock labor Avith surprising energy, as 

 though resolved to turn the remainder of the 

 season to the best possible account. Though 

 the parent stock, removed to a ncAV stand, may 

 have lost a large proportion, if not the most of 

 its honey-gathering force, it will still retain 

 enough to re-establish itself; and the young 

 bees, hitherto mainly employed in nursing 

 brood, noAV to a large extent relieved from that 

 duty, Avill speedily join the corps of active out- 

 door laborers, there being no more uncapped 

 brood in the hive requiring their presence on 

 the combs. If the young queen is not lost on 

 her wedding excursion, the population Avill soon 

 be recuperated, and in a fcAV weeks it could 

 hardly be seen that the hive had contributed so 

 largely to the establishing of another colony. 

 It may, indeed, in the fall surpass in strength 

 colonies Avhich fldled to sAvarm, and possess this 

 further decided advantage that it consists almost 

 exclusively of young bees. 



The sum of the matter is that afterswarming, 

 or Avhat amounts to the same — the Avithdrawing 

 of the surplus force of a strong stock, is by no 

 means an evil, and may, indeed, be decidedly 

 beneficial in districts supplying no late fall pas- 

 turage, as it removes from an overpopulous 

 stock a large body of consumers, and converts 

 them into active producers, on another stage, 

 indeed, b«t still for the advantage of their 

 common OAvner. O. Rothe. 



Bees are, without exception, the most in- 

 dustrious of all insects in the world. They are 

 a treasure to those Avho k'now how to properly 

 manage them. 



