June 15. 1911 



359 



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At Borodino, New York 



AFTER-SWARMS FOR INCREASE. 



A correspondent writes that he wishes to 

 work his bees for comb honey and increase. 

 He plans to use the prime swarms for honey 

 as well as increase, and then increase as 

 much as possible with the after-swarms. 



As a rule I do not think that it pays to 

 keep or to build up after-swarms unless the 

 one wishing such rai)id increase desires to 

 study the way bees conduct their affairs 

 when left to carry out their instinct to its 

 fullest extent, or unless he is unfamiliar 

 with increasing rapidly by artificial increase. 

 With the after-swarms goes all prospect for 

 any surplus honey from the jiarent colony, 

 and a greater yield can be secured from this 

 than from the i)rime swarm, if rightly man- 

 aged. To hive each prime swarm that comes, 

 generally results in nearly doubling the 

 number of colonies in the apiary each year; 

 and, unless winter losses are great, this would 

 build up an apiary as fast as the experience 

 of a beginner would warrant. 



And there is another phase of this matter 

 which is often overlooked by the novice de- 

 siring a very rapid increase; that is, that the 

 surplus honey secured from the i)arent colo- 

 ny, where rightly managed, will generally 

 sell for more than enough to buy good full 

 colonies to take the place of the after-swarms, 

 and thus save all the time and fussing re- 

 quired to build them up so that they will 

 winter. Hundreds of bee-keepers in the 

 past would have given ten times as much 

 to know how to be entirely rid of all after- 

 swarms as they would to know how to build 

 them up to full colonies for wintering. Of 

 all the annoyances and nuisances to the 

 practical apiarist, after-swarms are the worst. 



But as all people do not think alike, I will 

 tell how I used to manage in the beginning 

 of my ajncultural life, when I was anxious 

 for a rai)id increase, and when our present 

 modern i)lans had not yet been thought of. 

 The first requisite toward a successful start 

 for an after-swarm is a frame of brood in all 

 stages, to be placed in the hive at the time 

 of hiving. As the queen with an after-swarm 

 is rarely if ever fertilized when the swarm 

 issues, and seldom earlier than two or four 

 days later, it is between four and eight days 

 before she commences to lay, thus making 

 nearly a month from the time of hiving be- 

 fore any young bees emerge from the cells 

 in which this young queen dejjosited her 

 eggs. By this time the bees belonging to 

 the swarm are beginning to die in great 

 numbers froni old age. This keeps such a 

 colony weak from that time on. 



It helps materially to give a frame of 

 brood; for, as fast as the bees die, young 

 bees are emerging to take their places; and 

 thus the queen, when she begins to lay, has 

 many suitable bees to mature the eggs and 

 brood, so that, by the end of six weeks from 

 the time the after-swarm was hived, there 

 is a populous colony in good condition in- 



stead of one sadly deficient in numbers. 

 This frame of brood is also of much value in 

 case the after-swarm loses its queen when 

 out to meet the drone, for she is sometimes 

 caught by birds, or fails to mark her new 

 home accurately. In case of a loss of this 

 kind, the fate of a broodless colony is sealed 

 unless the bee-keei)er is on hand to remedy 

 the matter by giving another queen or brood. 



If brood is given when the swarm is hiv- 

 ed, and the queen becomes lost, they have 

 the material from which to rear another. 

 Then if, in addition to the frame of brood, 

 the remainder of the hive is filled with empty 

 combs at time of hiving, or, better still, with 

 combs containing some honey, this colony 

 at the beginning of winter will be more val- 

 uable than are those from prime swarms, 

 inasmuch as the queen will be at her best 

 the following year, while the queens in prime 

 swarms, where more than two years old, 

 often begin to weaken and fail before the 

 honey harvest of the next year. In the ab- 

 sence of combs, other than the one contain- 

 ing brood, I would most certainly use comb 

 foundation for all after-swarms, no matter 

 what it costs, if I intend to winter them; 

 and I say this, knowing that such after- 

 swarms build worker-comb almost entirely. 



I said, "if I intend to winter them," for 

 I have often used after-swarms for building 

 such worker-combs, keeping them at it until 

 they were used up in doing this, or so nearly 

 so that several were united for wintering. I 

 then believed that there was a ])rofit in us- 

 ing them in this way; and where combs are 

 scarce, and foundation high, I still believe 

 they can be made as profitable in this way 

 as in any other, where they are allowed to 

 issue at all. However, if I should desire 

 them for wintering I would give them every 

 advantage possible, including comb founda- 

 tion, where emi)ty combs are not available. 

 Having them fixed as I have outlined, they 

 are now in good condition unless they should 

 fail in securing enough stores for winter. 



Where these are lacking they must be fed 

 the same as any other colony which is short 

 of stores when the flow of nectar ceases for 

 the year. If they are thus short, do not de- 

 lay this feeding, but do it just as soon as 

 you reasonably believe that the honey har- 

 vest is over for the season, so that it may be 

 gotten in shape to surround the winter nest 

 as is needed for successful wintering. 



The question of how much to feed depends 

 upon whether the bees are to be wintered in 

 the cellar or on the summer stands, When 

 wintered in the cellar the amount given can 

 be shaded by from 5 to 10 ix)unds. If the 

 bees are wintered on the summer stands I 

 allow from 25 to 30 pounds, preferably the 

 latter. From more than forty years' experi- 

 ence I have found that, with that amount, 

 the bees feel so rich that they do not retrench 

 in brood-rearing before the flowers bloom in 

 spring, as they will when light in stores. 



