2o6 



June. 1909. 



American Vee Journal 



)>=^^^ I 



the "survival of the fittest," and is 

 plausible. At any rate, Mr. Bertrand 

 is too eminent and too careful an ob- 

 server for us to disregard his opinions. 

 Then we must bear in mind that Ameri- 

 ca did not possess the honey-bee origin- 

 ally, since it came with the settlement 

 by Europeans, and was called by the In- 

 dians "the white man's fly." So we can- 

 not be said to have the honey-bee which 

 suits our country best until we have 

 given fair trial to all existing races. 

 It is quite likely that the American hon- 

 ey-bee, which will perhaps be called 

 "Apis mellifica Americana," will be a 

 mixture of several races. But we can 

 already feel certain that its nature will 

 have to be curbed for several centuries 

 before we can boast of non-swarming 

 bees, long-tongued bees, etc. Swarm- 

 ing is the only method by which the 

 honey-bee can propagate itself in natur- 

 al circumstances, away from the hand 

 of man, and for that reason we may be 

 sure that it will be the last character- 

 istic to become effaced in the race by 

 careful management and selection. 



Our friends across the Atlantic are 

 producers of extracted honey, like my- 

 self. Like myself they use very large 

 hives, perhaps not universally, but quite 

 generally. They will therefore much 

 more readily succeed in decreasing the 

 swarming impulse than most of our 

 American producers. But it must not 

 be taken for granted that our Swiss 

 friends are the only ones who succeed 

 in preventing swarming". It is almost 

 universal in those countries where large 

 hives, the production of extracted honey, 

 and house-apiaries or slielters, are used. 

 In addition, their climate is much cool- 

 er, in the summer, than ours, as nearly 

 all of Europe is north of the 40th de- 

 gree of latitude, while almost the en- 

 tire United States is south of the 45th. 

 This fact alone would explain the 

 greater success in the prevention of 

 swarming in Europe, by artificial 

 means. 



.\ CORRECTION. 



My last article, on page 177, has been 

 made quite unintelligible in the begin- 

 ning by a printer's error. I said, 7th 

 line: "The royal jelly, so-called, is 

 tiozi: known to be the same in compo- 

 sition as that given to the young work- 

 er-larvae". The printer made me say : 

 "The royal jelly, so-called, is not 

 known," etc. Quite a different mean- 

 ing. 



Hamilton, 111. 



The Swarming Impulse and 

 Its Control in the Apiary 



BY RALPH BENTON 

 Assistant Kntomologist^ Ujtiversity of Calif oriiia 



(Continued from page 176.) 

 Dividing bv Hive- Stories. 



Division approximately equal, some 

 principles of which I have just been 

 discussing, may be accomplished, I have 

 said, in two ways. One way, and per- 

 haps the simplest way, is to make the 

 line of division between stories. Prepara- 

 tory to such a division the strength of 



the colony should be assured and the 

 queen permitted to lay in both stories 

 to her fullest capacity. When the 

 queen is found to be laying nicely in 

 the top story a queen-excluding honey- 

 board may be placed between the sto- 

 ries, confining the queen above. This 

 will save time otherwise lost in hav- 

 ing to locate the queen when division 

 takes place. 



When conditions are such as to war- 

 rant division, and the colony full of 

 bees and brood, the top story with the 

 queen should be raised up, and the 

 lower story removed, and then the top 

 story lowered upon the bottom-board 

 on tlie old stand. This gives, it will 

 be observed, the flight-bees, the orig- 

 inal queen and the younger brood to 

 the new colony on the old stand. The 

 parent colony in the original brood- 

 chamber retains most of the young 

 bees and emerging brood, together with 

 some of the older bees, and should be 

 set up on a new and preferably remote 

 stand in order to retain what old bees it 

 happens to contain. A laying queen 

 may be immediately caged for intro- 

 duction, or the next evening either a 

 virgin queen may be run in at the en- 

 trance, or a ripe cell inserted. 



Much time will be saved and greater 

 economy gained if division is not made 

 until at least ripe cells are ready for 

 distribution, although the parent and 

 queenless portion of the divided col- 

 ony, if it contains, or is given eggs or 

 young larvae, will provide themselves 

 with a queen in time. 



Dividing the Brood-Cha.mber. 



An equal division may be more nearly 

 approximated in the second way of di- 

 viding involving a division of the 

 brood-chamber. As before, the brood- 

 chamber is removed from the old stand 

 and either the top story or an empty 

 story set in its place. The old queen, 

 then, with some of the older bees, to- 

 gether with the younger, unsealed 

 brood, are set over into the new hive 

 which, being placed on the old stand, 

 is destined to receive tlie flight bees. 

 The original brood-chamber with most 

 of the bees in the colony at the time 

 of division, chiefly young bees, and all 

 of the emerging and sealed brood is set 

 up on a remote stand in the apiary, 

 preferably with a distinctive land-mark 

 as a slanted bottom-board before the 

 entrance. 



It is to be noted that the original 

 queen is left where the old bees are: 

 tliat the working force of the colony 

 is kept together on the old stand; and 

 that there is a lull in the emergence of 

 young bees in the new colony on the 

 old stand in view of the fact that the 

 emerging brood and sealed brood is re- 

 tained in the old colony on the new 

 stand, the effect being to retard and 

 discourage the possibility of swarming 

 where tlie original queen is kept. On 

 the other hand, the old colony on the 

 new stand has the younger bees and is 

 rapidly reinforced from the emerging 

 brood it contains. Further, this por- 

 tion of the original colony being mainly 

 composed of young and queenless bees 

 is in the most ideal condition to re- 

 ceive a young queen or a ripe cell, or 

 in the absence of either of these, to 



rear and care for queen-cells if it be 

 given larvK of the right age, providing 

 its numbers warrant it, as might pos- 

 sibly be the case if the original colony 

 had been a strong one. I have previ- 

 ously called attention, however, to the 

 economy to be gained from having ripe 

 cells or young queens previously reared, 

 ready to be given the queenless partner 

 to a colony division. 



Dividing by Nuclei. 



Another form of division is recog- 

 nized when an equal division is not 

 sought, but a purposeful unequal di- 

 vision accomplislied by simply drawing 

 off a nucleus from the parent colony. 

 The underlying principle of this mode 

 of division is a recognized one in api- 

 cultural practice. I refer to the princi- 

 ple of keeping the working force of a 

 colony together as much as possible for 

 the storing of honey, a principle not 

 only behind this mode of division, but 

 also the lines of procedure in the two 

 final systems of handling the swarming 

 problem to be discussed in the present 

 paper. 



In dividing on the nucleus plan, the 

 queen and not over 2 frames of emerg- 

 ing brood with adhering bees are drawn 

 off from the colony to be divided and 

 set over into an empty hive to be placed 

 on a new stand and destined to be 

 built up gradually during the season to 

 a full colony, much as any weak colony 

 is built up for the honey harvest by 

 timely and judicious enlarging of the 

 brood-nest. The original colony on the 

 old stand thus made queenless is treated 

 much as previously outlined in the case 

 of more equal dividing. A laying queen 

 should be supplied it as speedily as pos- 

 sible, and plenty of storage - room 

 should be given the bees for work to 

 discourage swarming. This mode of 

 division, in fact, is adaptable to re- 

 queening in the spring of the year, a 

 modification being made in that as soon 

 as the parent colony is supplied suc- 

 cessfully with a laying queen, the old 

 queen in the nucleus is disposed of, and 

 instead of building up the nucleus into 

 a full colony it is kept throughout the 

 season as a full framed nucleus for 

 the mating of additional queens for 

 use in the apiary. This results in final 

 effect to no net increase or but a very 

 slight increase, only attained as several 

 of tlie full-framed nuclei are united to- 

 ward fall to make full colonies for 

 wintering. 



On the other hand, when young 

 queens are available in large numbers 

 this system may be followed up further 

 and increase be made the main object. 

 If this be the desired end, the colony 

 as a hone}' colony is sacrificed and in- 

 stead of drawing ofT simply one nucleus 

 with the original queen, the parent col- 

 ony say of 10 frames with as many 

 more empty combs is divided into 4 or 

 5 approximately equal nuclei in full- 

 sized hives, the original queen being 

 left with the flight bees on the old 

 stand. Each nucleus is then given 

 preferably a ripe cell, or a virgin queen 

 may be run in at the entrance toward 

 night. The development of each nu- 

 cleus is then jealously watched, rob- 

 bing being guarded against and judi- 

 cious enlargement of the brood-nest 

 practiced as soon as the young queens 



