Jl7I,v, 1920 



a F- E A N I N G R IN BEE C U I. T U R E 



42^ 



fewer in luiinlois. l''.vi<lt'iitly tlio queen was masli- 

 eJ or went olV willi a swarm. Not lonfr ago I 

 brought the hive home and now (June 7) there aro 

 neither young bees nor eggs in the hive., altlui the 

 eombs are white with lioney and the liees )iave 

 drawn out part of the foundation. Shouldn't the 

 queien be laying by this time if tliere is one in 

 the hive? It takes 16 days for a queen to hatch 

 out; how long should it be before she starts laying? 

 (2) I just gave this colony a frame with eiigs and 

 young larvaa; was that all right! (3) After a prime 

 swarm issues what is the shortest number of days 

 before another swarm may come out? 



Virginia. Carrington Calloway. 



Answers. — (1) From your description you 

 evidently wrote us L'O days after your first 

 queen was lost. It would probably be 10 to 

 12 days before the viroiii would hatch. Then 

 it would likely be from five to eight days 

 longer before she would be laying. (2) Yes, 

 that would give them a elianee to start 

 queen-eells in case they had no queen. (3) 

 The time that will elapse between the prime 

 swarm and the after-swarm tiepends a great 

 deal on weather conditions. In ease of un- 

 favorable weather such that the queen is 

 confined to the hive for some time, the first 

 after-swarm might issue as soon as three 

 days after the prime swarm, but this, of 

 course, would be unusual. Generally the 

 first after-swarm does not issue for as much 

 as eight days after the prune swarm. 



Questions. — (l)My two colonies being short of 

 stores this spring, I fed them for a week, when 

 a swarm issued. On looking over the hive I found 

 it chock-full of honey. Did I do right in feeding 

 so much? I hived the swarm and in less than 10 

 days they sent out another swarm, and I caught 

 the queen and clipped her wings and they are 

 doing nicely. (2) We have another hive which 

 sent out a nice swarm and we hived them without 

 a sting. In about 10 days it sent out another 

 swarm, and they were the crossest bees I have 

 ever seen in my life. What do you think could 

 have been the reason? My lees are all Italians. 



Virginia. H. E. Anderson. 



Answers. — (1) It was all right to feed the 

 bees since they were in actual need of 

 stores, but apparently you gave them more 

 than they really needed, and they, there- 

 fore, filled the brood-chamber with honey 

 so that the queen had not enough room to 

 lay, which condition probably caused the 

 swarming. When the first swarm issues, all 

 the queen-cells but the best should be torn 

 down and the old hive moved to a new lo- 

 cation. This prevents after-swarms. It is 

 unfortunate that you clipped the wings of 

 the queen in your after-swarm. The queens 

 in after - swarms are unmated, and, since 

 queens mate while on the wing, it would be 

 impossible for such a queen to mate if her 

 wings are clipped. She should be killed and 

 a laying queen or capped queen-cell given. 

 (2) As a general thing, swarming bees are 

 good-natured, but occasionally they may bo 

 cross. If they swarm with little or no hon- 

 ey in their lioney sacs they are very cross. 



Questions. — (1) Two of my hives containiiig 

 dipped queens swarmed out about a week ago. 

 Being away at the time they all went back in the 

 old hivo«. Several days later one colon v .swarmed 



nut and this time cluslerod. Oniild tlioro have been 

 a virgin queen with them or will they sometimes 

 cluster without a queen. I found the old queen 

 crawling about in front of the hive. (2) After 

 hiving the new swarm, I placed the old queen in 

 the new hive and set it on the old hive-stand, 

 giving them a frame of brood and honey from the 

 parent colony. This frame contained two capped 

 queen-cells which I discovered afterwards. Should 

 I cut these out? (3) The other hive has not yet 

 swarmed for the second time. I found the old 

 queen outside the hive several days. She seemed 

 to be hurt, as she moved about very slowly, 

 dragging her hind legs, and the ne.xt morning I 

 found her dead. Upon examining the colony I 

 found a dozen capped queen-cells. Do you advise 

 cutting them all out but two, leaving one for the 

 old hive and one to lead out a swarm? (4) Should 

 I cut out all queen-cells from the hive that swarm- 

 ed? Will this prevent after-swarming? 



Pennsylvania. Earl B. Hunt. 



Answers. — (1) Bees often swarm out and 

 cluster even when their queen is not with 

 them, but if she is not in the cluster they 

 will very shortly return to their hive. (2) 

 When hiving the swarm they should not be 

 given capped queen-cells. You see if cap- 

 ped queen-cells are given them and they 

 also have their queen, they will be very 

 likely to send out another swarm. Any 

 time, however, when you think there may be 

 a virgin queen present, the swarm should be 

 given a comb containing some eggs and 

 young larvae. The swarm will stay more 

 contented. (3) Quite likely the other swarm 

 with the injured queen left their hive, the 

 queen with them, and she being unable to 

 fly became in some way injured before she 

 returned to the hive. In such a case, all 

 of the queen-cells but one should be torn 

 down. (4) For preventing after-swarms, 

 about the easiest plan is to tear down all 

 but the best queen-cell and move the old 

 hive to a new location, hiving the colony in 

 the new hive, left on the old stand. 



Questions. (1) How would the following treat- 

 ment of swarms work when no increase is desired ? 

 Hive the swarm on combs of full sheet.s of founda- 

 tion on the old stand; shake or brush all bees re- 

 maining in the parent colony in front of the hive 

 containing the swarm; place the beeless brood, 

 after killing all queen-cells, over an excluder, on a 

 hive being run for extracted honey ; kill queen 

 cells again in a week if necessary. (2) Would it 

 be better to divide the brood from the parent colony 

 among sevei-al colonies instead of placing all of it 

 over one hive ? 



Washington, D. 0. R. E. Hile. 



Answers. — (1) It would be possible to 

 treat your swarms in the way that you sug- 

 gest in case no increase is desired. How- 

 ever, there would be a possibility that the 

 bees would immediately start other queen- 

 cells and swarm again. Simply removing 

 the brood oftentimes will not discourage the 

 swarming fever. It would he much better 

 to remove also the young bees together with 

 the brood; for these young bees are the very 

 ones that are primed with royal jelly ready 

 for queen-cells. (2) Yes, if all the colonies 

 are already strong. It would be better to 

 help up two than to get one so very strong 

 that they thettiselves might plan swarming. 



