VOL LIX— NO. 6 



HAMILTON, ILL., JUNE, 1919 



MONTHLY, $1.00 A YFAR 



SWARM CONTROL IN THE PRODUCTION OF 

 EXTRACTED HONEY 



WITHOUT doubt it is easier to 

 control swarming when pro- 

 ducing extracted honey than 

 with comb-honey production. 



We do not like to bother with any 

 of the remedies offered for prevent- 

 ing swarms after the bees have 

 shown a disposition to rear queen- 

 cells. We prefer to forestall the ten- 

 dency to the rearing of queen-cells. 

 This may not always be done. Yet in 

 an experience of some 50 years, we 

 find that not over S per cent of the 

 colonies run for extracted honey will 

 swarm if the proper requirements are 

 understood and provided. 



Although swarming is a natural 

 act in the cycle of a colony's exist- 

 ence, it is induced by causes which 

 are mainly under the control of the 

 apiarist. 



Lack of room, decrease in the op- 

 portunities for ventilation in hot 

 weather, increase in the temperature 

 of the bee-hive to the danger point,, 

 overcrowding of bees, desire to rear 

 young queens to replace a possibly 

 failing mother, these are the main 

 inducements to swarming. 



When we speak of lack of room we 

 must think of it in two ways : lack 

 of breeding room for the queen, lack 

 of storage room for the incoming 

 honey. 



From these two points we deter- 

 mine that we cannot prevent swarm- 

 ing unless the brood-chamber con- 

 tains a sufficient number of cells to 

 accommodate the egg-laying power 

 of the queen as well as to store the 

 pollen and honey necessary to the 

 sustenance of the hatching larva;. 

 Neither could we succeed in prevent- 

 ing it, if, the supers being insufficient 

 in space for honey, the bees were 

 compelled to place the fresh-gathered 

 honey in the brood-chamber as fast 

 as young bees hatch out. 



So we must have both a large 

 brood-chamber and large supers. The 



By C. P. Dadant. 



latter must not consist simply of 

 empty frames with strips of founda- 

 tion guides. A sudden honey flow, 

 coming before the bees have had time 

 to produce wax to build comb, would 

 give every bee an opportunity to fill 

 herself with honey, without room to 

 unload this honey, and a swarming 

 fever would quickly be the result. So 

 we must try to provide, beforehand, 

 a large number of empty combs in 

 our supers and place them over the 

 brood-chamber before the bees feel 

 the need of them. 



Decrease in the opportunities for 

 ventilation. — A the hive becomes 

 more fully populated, young bees 

 hatch daily by thousands, and the 

 workers go beck and forth through 

 the entrance in constantly increasing 

 numbers, the opportunities for ven- 

 tilation decrease. We should not for- 

 get that each colony, in warm 

 weather, must send a current of air 

 through the brood-combs to the re- 

 motest part of the upper story and 

 back and out again, in order to prop- 

 erly ventilate. As the population in- 

 creases, we increase the space avail- 

 able for ventilation, by raising the 

 hive from its bottom, in front, as 

 much as necessary to make the col- 

 ony comfortable. This may require a 

 space of from half an inch to three 

 inches. It is even sometimes neces- 

 sary to "stagger" the supers, placing 

 them back or forth slightly, so as to 

 leave an opening of a quarter inch or 

 more, between them and the body 

 of the hive. This method is to be re- 

 sorted to only when the lower ven- 

 tilation is deemed insufficient. We 

 must be sure that our bees are not 

 idle for lack of plenty of room or 

 ventilation. 



Touching the subject of ventilation, 

 it becomes more and more evident to 

 me that the spacing of combs one-and 

 a-half inches from center to center, 

 is one of the best helps for the pre- 



vention of swarming, as compared 

 t<> the one-and-three-eighths spacing 

 existing in most of the factory-made 

 hives. This spacing not only gives 

 an additional amount of clustering 

 space for the bees, but increases the 

 facilities for ventilation, without any 

 disadvantages whatever. At least, 

 since I have championed the wider 

 spacing as necessary, I have found 

 no valid objections to its use. The 

 addition of some 150 cubic inches of 

 breathing and clustering space, be- 

 tween ten combs of brood in a hive, 

 is an important matter. 



The overcrowding of bees is greatly 

 increased when a colony is permitted 

 to produce a large number of drones. 

 The drones are in the way, remaining 

 clustered in the brood-chamber at all 

 hours, except during the warm part 

 of the day, ; t the time when the 

 workers are busiest going back and 

 forth, when they, also, take flight and 

 annoy them with their activity. In 

 some hives, where the apiarist has 

 failed to control their production, one 

 may find as many as 2,000 or more of 

 these idlers, who consume honey and 

 get in the way of the workers. It is 

 a loss in every way to permit them to 

 be reared. Better cut out the drone- 

 comb in early spring and replace it 

 with worker comb. The bees will al- 

 ways manage to rear a hundred or 

 two of the drones in out-of-the-way 

 corners, but so small a number will 

 not be objectionable. 



In our hot countries, in order to 

 prevent the increase of heat to the 

 danger point, it is also necessary to 

 shelter the hives from the heat of the 

 sun. In northern climes, where the 

 sun's rays are more oblique, this 

 matter is of less importance. But at 

 the latitude of our own location, 

 which is the same as that of Naples, 

 Italy, or of Madrid, Spain, and at 

 low altitude, it is almost indispens- 

 able, if we wish our bees to feel com- 



