156 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



they will come out in spite of all we can do, | 

 take care of tliem in the manner indicated. \ 

 Wliile tijL-st swarms usually come out in the j 

 middle of the day, and take things in a reg- : 

 ular methodical way, as indeed we might 

 expect a laying queen of age and experience 

 to do, these after swarms that have queens 

 not yet fertilized are to be looked for at al- 

 most any time of day, from early -in the 

 morning, until after sundown, and they may ] 

 also be expected to do all sorts of eccentric 

 things, and to cluster in all sorts of places, [ 

 or to go off into the woods, without cluster- [ 

 ing at all. , i 



Preventing after swi'.rming, can generally j 

 be accomplished at least temporarily, by cut- ; 

 ting out all queen cells but one, after the old I 

 ((ueen witli the first swarm has left. There j 

 are two objections to this plan however. 

 The first is that if the single cell left fails to { 

 produce a perfect queen, the colony is left j 

 queenless. The second is that they will 

 sometimes— especially the Italians — swarm i 

 out with the only queen left, leaving the col- i 

 ony hopelessly queenless. With the extract- 

 en-, or by the use of empty combs, we can al- | 

 most invariably keep dawn the swarming fe- 

 ver, but if we work entirely for comb honey 

 even if the boxes are all supplied with foiui- 

 dation, we must expect to have more or less 

 .swavming. With box hives, perhaps the best 

 we can do, is to hive the after swarms near 

 the old stock, and let them set until the next 

 day ; by this time ail the queens will have 

 been killed but one, and we can then kill her, 

 shake the bees in front of their old hive and 

 all will be " lovely," or about as nearly so as 

 things ever are with box hives. 



Giving the old swarm a young fertile queen 

 as soon as the first swarm has left, will usu- 

 ally prevent all second swarming, or at least 

 for the time being, for the laying queen will 

 soon destroy all queen cells, or induce the 

 bees to do so. A simpler method, and one 

 that we believe succeeds almost invariably, 

 is to move the old colony away as soon as 

 the first swarm is out and set the new one 

 on the same stand. This has the elfect of 

 getting all the flying bees into the new 

 swarm and leaving the old one so destitute 

 tliat the queen that hatches first is allowed 

 to destroy all the rest of the cells. By this 

 plan, we are spared the trouble of opening 

 tlie hive, but are obliged to carry each hive 

 to a new stand as soon as it has swarmed, 

 [f the queen's wing is clipped, and we are at 

 liand, we can manage swarming by this 

 method very expeditiously. As soon as they 

 commence swarming, pick up the queen 



and carry away the hive they are coming out 

 of ; place the new one in ' its stead and as 

 soon as the bees commence coming back to ' 

 look for her, put the queen among them, and 

 your hive is swarmed without their cluster- 

 ing at all. This plan works excellently and 

 the bees go right to work apparently as per- 

 fectly satisfied as if they had clustered in 

 the usual way. The only objection is that 

 an inexperienced person might not find the 

 queen readily, and she might be lost ; also, 

 we are obliged to be on hand or risk losing 

 our queens. It should be bonie in mind 

 that a swarm that issues a month or more 

 after the first swarming, is not to be consid- 

 ered an after swarm for in this case it will 

 be led out by a laying queen, or one tliatt is 

 old, compared with the queens just hatching. 

 In regard to the oft repeated advice to pre- 

 vent after swarming by removing all queen 

 cells but one, it may be well to say that the 

 Italians frequently swarm without con- 

 structing queen cells at all, and the beginner 

 is sadly i)uzzled at finding nothing of the 

 kind when he looks his hive over. Also, we 

 may have several after swarms without hav- 

 ing any 'first swarm at all, where the queen 

 is killed or removed by accidelit. We once 

 had a box hive neighbor who was so much 

 taken np with an observatory hive he saw at 

 our house, that he at once w^ent home and made 

 one, and to get the bees, dnmimed out about 

 a quart from one of his hives. He got the 

 queen, and had a very fine one comb hive in 

 his parlor, but in a few days the box hive 

 she came from connnenced swarming, and 

 furnished liim with more (jueens and small 

 colonies than he knew what to do with. 



AIiiaHTXZO'C^ EOAU'DS. A few 

 years ago it was common to see bee hives 

 perched upon benches or "legs" with grass 

 and weeds so thick on the ground below, 

 that if a heavily laden bee missed the hive, 

 it was a chance if it picked its way out in a 

 full half hour, but at present we usually see 

 the hives so near the ground that those heav- 

 ily laden with pollen or honey, may go in on 

 foot if they find it more convenient so to do. 

 If you doubt the utility of having the groxmd 

 smooth and clean in front of the hives, it 

 may be well to take a look at a hive set in 

 the weeds and grass, and then at one pre- 

 pared in the way we advise. Several years 

 ago, we had a fine cohniy suspended from a 

 pair of spring balances. It was in the height 

 of the clover bloom, and the hive gained in 

 weiglit during the day an even 10 lbs. As 

 the hive was raised a couple of inches from 

 the ground to suspend it, the bees at about 



