1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



469 



How to Prevent Swarming — And at the Same 



Time Get the Largest Yield 



of Honey. 



BY J. E. CRANE. 



Well, now! That heading looks like a good one. The 

 ■only difficulty, so far as I am concerned, is that I do not know 

 just how to do it ; i. e., with every colony. To be sure, I can 

 remove the queen from every colony that I find preparing to 

 swarm, remove queen-cells, etc., to the end, but I may not in 

 this way get the largest yield of honey ; besides, how about 

 such colonies as swarm without so much as an egg in a queen^- 

 •cell, and evidently without thinking about it more than 15 

 minutes? 



Again, we may shake a colony from its combs and give it 

 an empty hive ; but this does not always work, as I have had 

 them swarm under exactly these conditions ; besides, our 

 ■vision of finlsht surplus grows less very rapidly with this 

 treatment. 



Another way is to produce a non-swarming strain, or 

 breed, that we can depend upon, that will keep right on stor- 

 ing honey to the close of the season without a thought of 

 swarming ; but as It may take from 50 to 100 years, or per- 

 haps much longer, to produce such a breed, it does not seem 

 altogether practical, especially to us whose locks are turning 

 gray. But this does not prevent us from doing what we can 

 to develop such a strain of bees. If but partially developt, it 

 would help in a degree. That some method is necessary is 

 •evident from the short time in which bees can gather surplus 

 honey. In this section of country about four weeks Is a full 

 average. Now, If the brood-chamber is filled with honey at 

 the end of the first week, and during the second week a swarm 

 issues, it will be well on to the fourth week before this colony 

 will be strong enough to go into boxes again to much purpose, 

 and this leaves only a few days for filling our clean white sec- 

 tions. Our new swarm will require from one to two weeks to 

 fill Its hive; and will be ready to go into the surplus depart- 

 ment just In time to start its combs, and then, as the flow Is 

 over, coat its sections with propolis. 



There are some non-swarming devices, but as they have 

 not seemed to me practical, I shall not speak of them. But 

 what is to be done? Something must be done, or, In most 

 seasons we shall get little surplus honey and much Increase. 

 We have all observed, or mostof us have, that what will break 

 up one " broody " hen will not another. You can frighten 

 one from her nest and she will scarcely return to it again ; 

 while with others you can take them off and they will " set " 

 on a board or on the floor, or even on their roost. You may 

 imprison them for several days, and when you liberate them 

 they will go back to "sitting " on sticks or stones with the 

 most provoking stupidity. It is thus with our bees ; what will 

 ■cure the swarmlng-fever In one colony will have but little 

 effect upon others. With one you can cut out the queen-cells 

 nearly ready to seal and they will give it up ; with another 

 colony It Is of no use whatever. 



The presence of a large amount of brood in the hive ap- 

 pears to be the most exciting cause of swarming. This leads 

 me to the first method of preventing swarming. I remove 

 <every brood-comb and replace them with empty combs, or at 

 least those having no brood. While a little honey seems to do 

 no harm, a little brood given them or left in their hive may 

 upset our best Intentions ; for the colony Is apt to start queen- 

 cells upon it and then swarm. The brood-combs that are re- 

 moved can be given early in the season to any weak colonies, 

 and thus quickly bring them Into a profitable condition, while 

 the colony that would have swarmed, finding its brood gone, 

 usually gives up swarming at once and goes to work with a 

 will, quickly filling the brood-chamber with honey, and a mod- 

 erate amount of brood, and is again at work in the boxes. This 

 plan works well about nine times in ten, when perhaps the 

 tenth time they will start brood and queen-cells at once, and 

 out they swarm. This tenth time is apt to be where a swarm, 

 or part of one, has gone into our colony before we operated 

 on them. Strong colonies only should be treated in this way, 

 as having no hatching brood in their hive they soon become 

 weakened. 



Another class of colonies, such as have a very moderate 

 amount of brood, or an old queen, or one we wish to supersede-, 

 we open their hive and remove the queen. If we can find her, 

 and cut out the queen-cells. Eight days later we again cut 

 out queen-cells ; and in from four to eight days more give 

 them a young virgin queen. If she is young enough, she Is 

 usually accepted and soon laying, and as the brood from the 

 old queen keeps hatching until near the close of the season, it 

 remains strong and does quite a fair business. If we fail to 

 find the queen we cut out all queen-cells every eight days to 



the end of the season, and the queen usually disappears be- 

 fore that time, so we can give them a virgin queen. 



But there are many colonies that have young, vigorous 

 queens of the previous season that we do not wish to destroy, 

 and we have not a sufficient number of dry combs to give 

 them. These we treat In another way. Finding the queen, 

 we remove her with a brood-comb, one from which the young 

 bees are just hatching, if possible, and place the comb with 

 another having considerable honey and one having a little 

 honey and no brood in a new hive, and after shaking off bees 

 enough from the combs of the hive from which the queen was 

 removed to make a good nucleus, when the old bees have re- 

 turned to the parent hive, we close It up, after making sure 

 the comb of brood we gave it has no queen-cells. We remove 

 all queen-cells from the hive from which we removed the 

 queen, that are likely to hatch within eight days. Of course 

 we return the partly-filled sections, and in eight or nine days 

 we again cut out all queen-cells, and later give a virgiu queen, 

 the same as we did to the colonies whose queens we destroyed. 

 This plan keeps us very well supplied with young queens. 



In eight days we again go over our colonies, giving the 

 strongest ones preparing to swarm a full set of dry combs In 

 place of their brood-combs, and give these brood-combs to the 

 nuclei formed the previous week, thus quickly building them 

 up into profitable colonies that will sometimes give as much 

 surplus as the colony from which they were started. Italian 

 bees are at their best when placed In small nuclei ; they give 

 up all thoughts of swarming, and seem to store two or three 

 times as fast in proportion to their numbers as when in full 

 colonies. 



I am apt to find some queenless colonies near the close of 

 the season. My young queens are frequently several days old 

 before I get around to Introduce them, as I have several yards 

 to look after. Then there are some that get mixt, and a part 

 of the bees appear to want an old queen and a part a young 

 virgin, and so, like some families that pull in different direc- 

 tions, neither get what they want. These I give two or three 

 brood-combs, and they usually come out all right. Some api- 

 arists return old queens to hives that have been unqueened, 

 but I have never succeeded in returning them satisfactorily. 



In removing queen-cells I select the best and place in 

 nurseries to hatch, and thus keep myself well supplied with 

 virgin queens of good quality. 



While the plan above outlined does not wholly prevent 

 swarming, it does prevent very much Increase — enough to use 

 all my old combs and keep my stock good ; and while I do not 

 get nearly as much honey as I believe I should if the bees 

 would give up the foolish habit of swarming, I have reason to 

 believe that I get more than I should by any other system with 

 the same expense. Of course, it will be understood that I am 

 working wholly for comb honey. Where a yard of bees is run 

 for extracted honey, a modification of this view should be 

 used.— Bee-Keepers' Review. Addison Co., Vt. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. O. O. SULLBR, OJLARENGO, ILL. 



[Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. MLler dlreot.l 



Several Que8tion§ by a Beginner. 



1. I transferred a colony during apple-blossoming, from a 

 box-hive to a dovetail. I became over-zealous and fixt up 

 three frames with the old comb which had brood in and re- 

 placed In the hive. I find that the comb has sagged and sticks 

 to one or two other frames. Would you cut them apart? 



2. Will the bees be likely to swarm after transferring? 

 They have not done so as yet. 



3. I hived a swarm In what we call the "Lumber Dis- 

 trict," at Albany, some time ago. I lookt for the queen but 

 could not find one. I then took the hive with foundation 

 comb, turned the bottom up, sw^pt some of the bees into the 

 hive, then turned it right side up and placed the edge above 

 the remainder of the bees. They immediately began to run up 

 in the hive, and I now have them here In the yard. They seem 

 quite contented, and are working all right. Do you suppose 

 the queen is among them ? 



■1. From this same swarm I notice one drone-bee that goes 



