1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



711 



ony. We can shake them from combs out of 

 different colonies or we can gather some 

 bees hanging out in front of some strong 

 colonies, or in any other way (gathered 

 swarms). 



To prevent swarming without increase we 

 have different ways again. One of the most 

 interesting is the following: Hunt out the 

 queen and place her with one or two brood- 

 combs in a new hive. Fill this hive with 

 frames of foundation or with empty combs, 

 and set it on the old stand. On top of it 

 place a queen-excluder and over it all the 

 other brood-combs. This plan is a sure pre- 

 ventive of swarming. In some localities it 

 may be necessary to go through the opera- 

 tion a second time; but for comb-honey pro- 

 duction it is not practicable. I have not 

 read an explanation of this fact as yet, and 

 will give one here: If a queen-excluder is 

 used, and we have brood on both sides of it 

 we divide the colony practically in two to a 

 certain degree. That the queenless part of 

 this division will raise a queen is proof enough 

 that practically such a division takes place. 

 In the case we have in consideration we 

 have, in fact, made a "flight swarm" and 

 have set the parent colony on top of it over 

 the excluder. 



Some other plans to prevent swarming 

 without increase are based on the principle 

 of making artificial swarms as soon as 

 queen-cells are started, and to unite again 

 when the danger of swarming is over. We 

 can divide one colony into two, and after- 

 ward unite them again; but we can just as 

 well make the swarm by the help of more 

 colonies than one, and unite any two colo- 

 nies afterward for this purpose. 



This dividing and uniting afterward of a 

 colony can be done in different ways. The 

 principle is. that one part of the colony with 

 most or all of the brood-combs is weakened 

 so much in bees that the queen-cells are de- 

 stroyed; now both colonies can be united 

 again. By all these different combinations 

 that part of the colony with the most brood 

 is removed to a new stand. Sometimes it 

 may happen that, in this part of the colony, 

 the eggs are removed from the cells, and a 

 part or all the open brood starved to death. 

 This is caused by the fact that the bees are 

 not able to prepare larval food without wa- 

 ter. The proper remedy is, to give to such 

 colonies, when they are formed, a comb fill- 

 ed with water. This is suflficient till some 

 of the young bees fly out and return to this 

 colony. This was known long ago; never- 

 theless, this point is generally not mention- 

 ed if this manipulation is described. The 

 reason is, that this manipulation is general- 

 ly done during a honey-flow, and then enough 

 thin honey is in the hive, and this watering 

 is not necessary. 



Quite another problem it was for me to 

 have my colonies in proper condition for 

 storing honey in the sections at the right 

 time. I had no trouble in preventing 

 swarming by the use of large hives; and if 

 this was not suflficient in some years I made 

 artificial colonies with plenty of bees, a full 



set of brood- combs, and a fertile queen, so 

 they were working colonies right at once, 

 the same as any old colony. This had to be 

 done before the main honey-flow commenced; 

 but now with the honey-flow the difficulty 

 arose. In these hives with large brood- 

 chambers the colonies were not in good con- 

 dition for section work. I never thought of 

 using smaller hives, because I knew the dis- 

 advantages of them for development in 

 spring, especially in my locality. I had 

 made the observation that strong swarms, 

 hived just at the beginning of the honey- 

 flow, could easily be induced to commence 

 the work in the sections at once. Such 

 swarms had given me the most honey; in 

 fact, I never could get much comb honey in 

 sections from any colony except from such 

 swarms. Sometimes I united two or more 

 natural swarms and got a fair crop of comb 

 honey from them. 



The only difficulty with these swarms was 

 that they got weaker every day during the 

 first three weeks by losing some field bees, 

 and because no young bees were added to 

 the working force. At the same time an 

 increasing number of young bees were nec- 

 essary for the swarm to nourish the increas- 

 ing brood. It was plain to me the swarm 

 should get some young bees occasionally to 

 make up the loss of worker bees during the 

 first three weeks. It was easy enough to 

 make the swarm artificially by any one of 

 the ways described in this article, but how 

 add some bees to the swarm? Heddon's 

 plan to prevent after-swarms has given me 

 a hint how it can be done, and I believe I 

 was the first one who recommended this 

 jumping-over of the parent colony several 

 times till all the bees are drawn to the 

 swarm. But even then 1 can not claim any 

 thing new, because the operation is nothing 

 but Heddon's plan extended for a longer 

 period of time, and to the finish of this colo- 

 ny. This plan of comb-honey production 

 was called the "shook-swarm system." 

 This is somewhat misleading, because it 

 makes no difference at all how the swarm is 

 formed. We can just as well use a natural 

 swarm; we can use two colonies if we want 

 a very strong swarm, or we can make the 

 swarm in any other way. In fact, I have 

 used different ways to form these swarms, 

 and had very good reason to prefer the 

 shaking. By jumping we can draw the bees 

 from the parent colony, which had given the 

 bees for the swarm or from any other colo- 

 ny, if more convenient. This would need a 

 little different manipulation, but otherwise 

 would make no difference. The principle is 

 to make an artificial swarm and afterward 

 strengthen it about once every week by add- 

 ing more bees. There are some other ways 

 to strengthen this colony with bees, possibly 

 some of them even better. Colonies ma- 

 nipulated in this way will not swarm. The 

 swarming-time in some localities is just at 

 the beginning of the main honey-flow. In 

 this case the two purposes named above are 

 attained by one and the same operation. 



Converse, Texas. 



