May, 1909. 



American ^ec Journal j 



gun preparations for swarming, the 

 casting of the swarm, in the majority 

 of cases, follows as the night does the 

 day, despite the preventive efforts the 

 apiarist may seek to introduce. It is 

 thus seen that under given conditions, 

 variety types may become a factor in 

 the swarming problem; but with meth- 

 ods of practice suited to the variety 

 and strain of bees kept, by adaptation 

 of manipulations, the variety type may 

 be largely ignored. 



The best principle of practice in the 

 restriction or prevention of swarming 

 if bees representative of the more pro- 

 lific varieties are kept, is thus seen to 

 be the adoption of larger hives. This 

 does not always seem advisable, as in 

 the case of comb-honey production, 

 where a crowded condition of the col- 

 ony is desirable, and to this extent the 

 selection of a variety and strain of bees 

 suited to one's purposes is recognized 

 to be a necessity if we are not to be 

 troubled unduly with swarming. 



Natural Swarming. 



There are several methods of hand- 

 ling the swarming problem in the 

 apiary, and for convenience these may 

 be grouped into Natural Swarming, 

 Forced Swarming, and Prevention of 

 Swarming. 



• Under a system of natural swarming 

 it is needless to say that the colonies 

 of bees are permitted to take their own 

 course. The queens, usually of a previ- 

 ous year's rearing, are fairly young and 

 vigorous, and organize their brood-nest 

 in goodly proportions. Stimulative feed- 

 ing and manipulations to enlarge the 

 brood-nest may or may not be prac- 

 ticed by the apiarist. 



As the colony nears the main honey 

 harvest the hive is found to be quite 

 populous, and hot weather becomes 

 more continuous and oppressive. The 

 bees begin to gather honey more freely, 

 and, in fact, are beginning to lack for 

 space in which to spread out and handle 

 the unripened honey. Quantities of 

 new honey are therefore retained by the 

 bees in their bodies, and this condition 

 coupled with a uniform high tem- 

 perature leads physiologically to the se- 

 cretion of wax. The space for the 

 building of new comb in the hive is 

 limited to deepening and capping the 

 honey-cells, and to building brace- 

 combs, after which this tendency to se- 

 crete wax is inhibited and the colony 

 becomes restless, beginning to cease 

 work and to hang in clusters about the 

 entrance. At the same time the queen 

 physiologically tending to the pro- 

 duction of eggs to her fullest capacity 

 becomes restricted in ovipositing on ac- 

 count of haying previously filled with 

 eggs, all available brood-combs, and, as 

 fast as the young bees emerge, the old 

 bees lacking storage room for honey, 

 fill the brood-combs with honey and 

 pollen, thus further hampering and re- 

 stricting the queen. The queen being 

 one of a previous year's rearing has 

 already produced a goodly number of 

 drones and now proceeds to deposit 

 eggs in the queen-cell cups already be- 

 ing built by the bees. The number of 

 these cells produced varies with the va- 

 riety of bees, the Oriental varieties pro- 

 ducing more than the European varie- 

 ties. 



Normally, on or about the day when 

 the first cell is capped, the old queen, 

 decreased in size on account of the 

 forced slackening of her egg-laying 

 issues with the swarm, usually between 

 the hours of 9 a. m. and noon, though 

 frequently earlier in case of very hot 

 weather, and sometimes later if the 

 early hours of the day have been in- 

 clement. The swarm clusters on a 

 near-by tree or shrub, partly, no doubt, 

 to equalize loads, but more especially 

 to seek a new location as evidenced by 

 the coming and going of scout bees. 



The apiarist stepping in at this junc- 

 ture shakes the bees into a hive and 

 sets his swarm upon a new stand. 

 Should the swarm cluster out of reach 

 in a tree, the limb may be sawed off 

 and gently lowered by a rope when the 

 bees can be carried and shaken into a 

 prepared hive. I prefer to shake bees 

 into a hive rather than in front of a 



Ralph Benton. 



hive, as the danger of a queen taking 

 to her wings is less. To make room 

 for shaking the bees into a hive, the 

 central frames may be removed, and af- 

 ter the bees are in, replaced ; the bees 

 spreading in all directions will soon let 

 the combs down, when the cover may 

 be set on, one edge up for ventilation 

 should the day be extremely warm. 



If trouble be experienced in keeping 

 a newly hived swarm, the insertion of a 

 frame of unsealed brood will always 

 entice them to stay. After-swarms may 

 be headed off by destroying the remain- 

 ing cells in the parent colony with the 

 exception of one or two well-developed 

 ones, and a week later only the young 

 queen is permitted to emerge to take 

 possession of the colony. Should ad- 

 ditional increase be desired after- 

 svvarrns may be permitted to issue 

 sometimes three or four of these be- 

 ing in turn hived and set up. 



Hiving With a Clipped Queen. 



To facilitate hiving the swarm, or 

 rather to eliminate the hiving by vir- 

 tually forcing the bees to hive them- 



selves, the queen may be clipped to pre- 

 vent her flying. Clipping is usually 

 done late in the fall or early in the 

 spring, some time before the swarming 

 period of May. 



To clip a queen I prefer to remove 

 her from the comb. This is done by 

 carefully picking her up from the rear 

 by the wings with the thumb and fore- 

 finger of the right hand. Then setting 

 the comb down, grasp the queen gently 

 from below by the thorax with the 

 thumb and first two fingers of the left 

 hand. This insures against any possi- 

 ble pinching of the abdomen and at 

 the same time secures the legs and re- 

 leases the wings. Either of the front 

 wings, usually consistently one, for the 

 sake of convenience say the left, is then 

 clipped a third to a half off with a 

 small, sharp pair of scissors operated 

 in the right hand, care being taken that 

 the bee in her struggles does not re- 

 lease any of her legs, endangering the 

 crippling of her. 



It has been my experience that a 

 queen so clipped is perfectly acceptable 

 to the bees, and is not prematurely re- 

 placed by the bees, as may speedily re- 

 sult were more than one wing clipped, 

 or were the one wing clipped to be 

 cropped close to the body. Some bee- 

 keepers practice giving their queens an 

 additional clip each spring, thus iden- 

 tifying their age. I prefer not to do 

 this, as it only hastens premature su- 

 persedure, and in most instances I know 

 the age of a queen without such a 

 mark; in fact, I favor requeening each 

 year, and such a practice obviates any 

 necessity for a distinctive mark for old 

 queens. 



The hiving of a swarm when the 

 queen is clipped, is much simplified. 

 When the swarm issues the apiarist, 

 queen-cage in liand, proceeds to the 

 liive swarming and kneeling down 

 watches for the queen. Just prior to 

 svyarming tlie bees gorge themselves 

 with honey so that they will be found 

 quite docile at the time of issuance. The 

 queen may lead off, or come out n^ar 

 the middle of the swarm, or not infre- 

 (lucntly last. Usually a slight pause on 

 the aligliting-board enables the skillful 

 apiarist to catch the queen and slip her 

 into a wirc-cloth or spiral-wire cag». 

 Placing the caged queen in the shade of 

 an adjoining hive, the parent colony, 

 as soon as the swarm is well out, is 

 dragged off its stand and usually the 

 entrance turned away. An empty hive 

 fitted with either combs and full sheets 

 of foundation, or entirely foundation, 

 or simply starters, as desired, is then 

 placed on the old stand, and the cage 

 containing the queen is laid on the 

 alighting-board. The bees missing their 

 queen will disperse in all directions in 

 search of her, and will begin to return 

 singly or by twos and threes to the old 

 stand. Finding the queen, more of the 

 bees will return, and when the swarm 

 is well in the notion of entering the 

 hive the cage may be opened and the 

 queen permitted to run in with the bees, 

 and the operation is complete. 



Augmenting Strength of New 

 Colony. 

 Tlie parent colony may be treated in 

 one of several ways. Should the in- 

 crease be desired the parent colony may 



