AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 823 



Hiving Swarms on Drawn Combs 

 in Producing Comb Honey. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



In the Bee Journal of Oct. 27, 

 1892, I was considerably interested 

 (and somewhat surprised, too) to see the 

 replies given in response to the Query, 

 " What is the best plan to make use of 

 a lot of nice brood-combs, should I wish 

 to work my bees for comb honey, allow- 

 ing each colony to swarm once ?" 



With one or two exceptions, the an- 

 swers favor hiving the swarms on the 

 combs. I cannot help wondering how 

 many have tried hiving swarms on 

 drawn combs, and at the same time 

 tried hiving some of their swarms on 

 starters only, or on sheets of foundation. 

 Years ago, I gave the plan a trial, and 

 have continued to try it until I am satis- 

 fied that, for me, it would be money in 

 my pocket to burn the combs rather 

 than fill the brood-nest when hiving 

 swarms in producing comb honey. 



Let me explain briefly how I produce 

 comb honey. I use supers and practice 

 the tieriug-up plan. When a super is 

 half-full and honey is coming in at a 

 fair rate, the super is raised and an 

 empty one put between that and the 

 hive. In a short time, depending upon 

 the rate at which honey is coming in, 

 the upper super will be found two-thirds 

 completed, and the lower one half filled. 

 If the bees do not swarm, another super 

 is soon given the colony, itr being placed 

 next to the hive. In a short time the 

 upper super will be ready to come off, 

 and the lower ones will be in such a 

 stage of completion that another super 

 can be added next to the hive. 



Almost every bee-keeper understands 

 that in tiering up this process is con- 

 tinued as long as honey continues to 

 come in, and bees do not swarm. But 

 in three cases out of four, in a good sea- 

 son, the bees will swarm. They seldom 



swarm until a start has been made in 

 the sections. At least, this is usually 

 the case when sections have been put on 

 soon enough, and some of the sections 

 contain partly or fully drawn combs. In ' 

 the past, many bee-keepers felt that 

 with the swarm went a fair share of the 

 hopes of any surplus. The swarm was 

 hived in a full-sized brood-chamber, and 

 given a new location, and it required 

 the remainder of an ordinary season to 

 build up and fill the hive for winter. If 

 left to itself, the old colony usually 

 swarmed until it was of no value as a 

 storer of surplus. If after-swarming 

 was prevented, the old colony would do 

 fair work if it had cast its swarm early 

 in the season. 



When a swarm issues I do not give it 

 a new location, but hive it on the old 

 stand, setting the old colony to one side 

 and preventing after-swarming by the 

 Heddon method. This plan throws all 

 of the working-force into the new 

 swarm. No more surplus is expected of 

 the old colony ; all that is expected of 

 that is to build up into a good colony for 

 winter. The surplus is all taken from 

 the swarm. The brood-nest is contracted 

 to the capacity of six Langstroth frames, 

 or one section of the new Heddon hive. 



Now it is a fair question why I would 

 not fill those brood-nests with drawn 

 combs. The first thing that the bees 

 will do is to fill the combs with honey. 

 They won't work in the sections until 

 they have filled the brood-combs, and 

 when they have filled them they seem 

 loth to begin work in the sections. They 

 seem to feel as though they had finished 

 their job, and it was asking too much of 

 them to commence another job away off 

 upstairs. Slowly, gingerly, grudgingly, 

 they will finally begin to work in the 

 sections if the honey-flow continues. 



Colonies hived on starters, or founda- 

 tion, cannot store honey in the brood- 

 nest until comb has been built or foun- 

 dation drawn out. The surplus cases 

 are always transferred from the old col- 

 ony to the newly-hived swarm at the 

 time of hiving, and as the bees have no- 

 wher» else to store their honey, they at 

 once begin work in the sections where 

 they left off when swarming. Within 

 20 minutes from the time that a swarm 

 has issued, I have had the bees right 

 back in the same sections at work with 

 the vim that comes only from a newly- 

 hived swarm. 



Where bees begin to store their honey 

 when they are hived, there they prefer 

 to keep on storing it. When there is no 

 comb in the brood-nest the honey must 



