MAY 1, 1914 



CONVEESATIONS WITH DOOLITTLE 



PREVENTING SWARMING BY REMOVING BROOD. 



" I wish to prevent swarming by the 

 removal of brood, as an old beekeeper tells 

 me this is Ihe best way. But I read some- 

 where that in removing brood only the 

 sealed should be taken, as swarming was 

 caused by any colony not having enough 

 unsealed brood for the nurse bees to care 

 for. In other words, when the unsealed 

 brood in any colony is not sufficient to con- 

 sume all the chyle prepared by the nurse 

 bees, swarming is sure to be the result. Is 

 this right?" 



It is possible that there may be something 

 in this theory. If I am right, those basing 

 their claim on this lack in consumption of 

 the chyle prepared believe that the disten- 

 sion of the chyle-stomacli is what causes un- 

 easiness in the nurse bees, and that this un- 

 easiness is conveyed to the whole colony — 

 so much so that the majority of the bees 

 with the mother sally forth for a new home. 



But I have never been able to see the log- 

 ic in any such reasoning; for with the issu- 

 ing of any swarm, and the finding of a home 

 (when not interfered with by man), these 

 nurse bees do not have even a few larvaa to 

 which to feed their loads of prepared chyle. 

 Without the apiarist to provide a home for 

 any SAvarm, often days and sometimes weeks 

 elapse before any home is found at all. The 

 scouts will search for an old vacated hive, a 

 hollow tree, or a cleft in some rocks ; and if 

 none is found, the swarm will move on some 

 few or many miles, when the cluster will be 

 formed again. Scouts are sent out again, 

 and so on till a place for a home is f oun d ; 

 and when such is found, comb must be 

 built and supi^lied with eggs by the queen, 

 and three days elapse before these eggs 

 hatch into larvae. So it has always seemed 

 to me that, if this accumulation of chyle 

 theory had any foundation in fact, the bees 

 were fools almost beyond measure, and their 

 instinct not equal to an emergency. 



" Again, I have read that the main cause 

 of the bees swarming was a lack of cells in 

 which eggs could be deposited by the 

 queen ; and in removing brood the unsealed 

 brood should be taken, in which case the 

 queen could find proper employment for 

 her powers, not only in the cells of the 

 combs given to replace those taken with 

 unsealed brood, but in the cells vacated by 

 the emerging brood. Is this right? " 



Now candidly, do you think it right to 

 try to tangle any one who has never ad- 



vanced either of these theories in tiiis way? 

 I am well aware, that, with a hive large 

 enough to contain all the empty cells which 

 any queen can occupy with her eggs during 

 the whole season, little if any swarming will 

 be the rule. Our beloved Moses Quinby told 

 us, more than half a century ago, that with 

 a box filled with comb large enough to pro- 

 vide cells for holding all the brood, honey, 

 and pollen that all the bees produced by 

 any queen could care for and bring in, such 

 a colony would never swarm, and no one 

 has proved Quinby incorrect. But such a 

 box is not calculated for the wants of any 

 beekeeper who wishes to produce gilt-edge 

 honey to put upon the market, so is not to 

 be considered by the one who is working 

 for honey in the most marketable shape. I 

 have tried taking away from two to four 

 combs of brood from colonies that had got- 

 ten strong enough in numbers to swarm 

 two weeks or less before the harvest of 

 white honey commenced; and after compar- 

 ing results in taking away both unsealed 

 and emerging brood, I could see no differ- 

 ence in favor of either. If practiced in just 

 the right time before the harvest, and be- 

 fore the bees begin jDreparations for swarm- 

 ing, fairly good results may be obtained. 



"When removing brood to prevent swarm- 

 ing, where should the two to four empty 

 combs (to replace the combs of brood re- 

 moved) be placed in the brood-chamber so 

 the queen will be most likely to occupy 

 them, instead of their being filled with 

 honey?" 



I have tried putting all of them together 

 in the center of the hive, placing any combs 

 of honey the colony might have at each side 

 next the hive, then the remaining combs of 

 brood between these combs of honey and the 

 empty combs set in; and where the bees are 

 not storing much more than is used daily, 

 this seems to put big-business ideas in the 

 queen, and brings us as good results as are 

 obtainable in using this removal-of-brood 

 plan. Then I have tried alternating these 

 empty combs with the combs of brood left 

 with the colony, where nectar was coming 

 in sufficiently so that the colony was at 

 work in the supers of sections, and found 

 that this brought forth better results than 

 did the massing of the empty combs togeth- 

 er. But I must record many failures witl) 

 this plan of removing combs of brood to 

 prevent swarming — not only in its failin^r 

 to prevent, but in its being successful i'l 

 putting much honey in the sections. 



