70 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION 



allowed to fill themselves with honey so that the normal condition of 

 bees when swarming will be established, for just before swarming 

 bees instinctively gorge themselves with honey, this accounting in 

 a large measure for their docility at the swarming time. The 

 swarm so shaken may be placed on the old stand to retain the 

 flight bees and the parent colony set up on a new stand. The plan 

 of continuing to add flight bees to the swarm may be followed in 

 this instance as described in connection with having natural swarms 

 on the old stands. If the shaken swarm is placed on starters a 

 young queen should be given it to insure the building of worker 

 combs, the old queen being retained in the parent colony. If young 

 queens enough are available it is well to replace the old queen at this 

 time, for if left in the parent colony, the instinct to swarm may lead 

 the colony as soon as strengthened up enough to warrant it, to cast 

 a swarm in spite of having been greatly depleted in numbers by the 

 previously shaken swarm. 



There has been some objection raised to thus shaking bees 

 from the brood combs of a colony, it being claimed that the brood 

 is chilled and that the unsealed brood is but poorly cared for in the 

 depleted condition of the colony. The plan should not be carried 

 out until just before the honey flow when the nights are warm and 

 the brood not likely to suffer much danger of being chilled. The 

 youngest brood may be given to other colonies. Or still better the 

 days immediately preceding the shaking of the swarm may be used 

 to introduce a young queen (first removing the old one), and so the 

 youngest brood will have time to get past the stage of needing so 

 much attention and care. Some beekeepers prefer to put a top 

 story on the colony to be divided a short time before it is proposed 

 to make the division. Then the young brood is all transferred to 

 this story and set down on the bottom board at the time of the 

 division, the bees from the lower stofy then being shaken into it 

 and the latter story set up on a new stand, as the parent colony and 

 given a laying queen from a nucleus. 



But it will probably be found that for the small apiarist the 

 clipping method of controlling swarming will be the most natural 

 and satisfactory. 



