THE BEEKEEPERS' REVIEW 213 



How Best to Control Swarming and Increase when 



Working for Comb Honey 



WESLEY FOSTER, Boulder, Colorado 



For ten years never more than twenty-five per cent of our bees 

 have ever been prepared to swarm in any one season and we are en- 

 gaged in comb honey production exclusively. Less than half of 

 these hives that begin to think of swarming ever get beyond build- 

 ing the cells and getting eggs started in them. By cutting the cells 

 out we discourage all but a very few. At the time of cutting the 

 cells more ventilation is given at the bottom and super room with 

 baits in the supers and perhaps a little upward ventilation if the 

 weather is real hot. A plan we have used quite a little is to put 

 bait sections with some honey in them on the hives two or three 

 weeks before the honey flow so that the bees will take out the honey 

 and get used to the sugar. My notion is that they enter it more 

 readily if they have become accustomed to it as a part of their hive. 

 In keeping the strength of all our hives as uniform as possible we 

 take considerable brood and hatching bees away from the hives that 

 would be most likely to swarm giving the brood from these strong 

 colonies to the weaker ones. 



We clip our queens' wings but it is becoming more unnecessary 

 every year except as a way to tell the age. In looking for queen 

 cells or cups with eggs in them we lift the front of the hive off the 

 bottom board and look up between the combs. One rarely will miss 

 a cell if there are any to be found. 



There is one thing about our location which makes it favorable 

 to non-swarming and that is we do not have a fast honey flow. The 

 best we can hope for any season is about five pounds per day, while 

 three and four would about hit the general average. 



I take it that the one who asked the question I have taken for a 

 topic wished to know how to keep the swarming and increase with- 

 in his control. We have controlled it in our apiaries so that we get 

 no more increase than enough to make up what we lose in winter- 

 ing and queenlessness. 



By watching the conditions that bring about swarming one 

 can avoid the major portion of it. When a hive gets full of bees, 

 honey and brood these must be reduced or at least more room given 

 or swarming will result. We do not allow the brood chamber to be- 

 come crowded till work has been started in the supers — it must be 

 admitted this is impossible with some hives. By giving brood and 



