16 A YEAR'S WORK IN AN OUT- APIARY 



Is checked in her laying at this point, as she would be in a hive thus 

 filled with honey, if no frame having empty cells was given, it is quite 

 apt to result in an effort being made at swarming, which is not con- 

 sistent with the immediate moving of the honey in these combs to the 

 supers above, and the success we wish to obtain, although even in case 

 of such swarming, better results are obtained than by any other plan 

 of "shook" swarming which I have tried; for after a fruitless effort or 

 two (the queen having her wings clipped so she can not go with the 

 swarm), and a few days of sulking, they will go to work with a will, 

 thus showing their acceptance of the situation. However, if treated as 

 here given, not one colony in fifty will do aught but accept the situation, 

 and go to work at once in the sections, especially it there is any honey 

 coming in from the fields, and the colony did not contract the swarming 

 fever before it was shaken. From 35 years of close watching I find 

 swarming to be conducted in this way as a rule: Queen-cells are formed, 

 or the walls of old queen cups drawn out till quite thin, when the queen 

 lays eggs in them. In three days these eggs hatch into larvae, which 

 are fed a little less than six days, when the cell is sealed over. On the 

 day after the sealing of the first cell the prime swarm issues with the 

 old queen. In order that the queen may fly and accompany the swarm 

 on the wing when the first larvae are about three days old, she begins 

 gradually to cease laying, and almost or entirely stops three days later, 

 or at the time the colony would naturally swarm. When the swarm 

 finds a home, and comb-building begins, the queen slowly begins to lay. 

 Increasing every day, till at the end of four days she has arrived at her 

 usual proliflcness again. And thus the queen is usually from seven to 

 ten days in a partial or wholly resting period, as to egg-laying, at the 

 time of swarming, the same being entirely necessary where increase 

 is done without the interference of man. Now, through sickness at the 

 time of "shook swarming," in 1906, which made me leave a part of the 

 colonies till they contracted the swarming fever and swarmed, I learned 

 that, through the stopping of the queen from laying for swarming, be- 

 fore a colony was shaken, and the consequent four days before she ar- 

 rived at full proliflcness again put that colony in the same condition as 

 the one which contracted the swarming fever after shaking, because no 

 frame partly full of brood was given. For this reason I have empha- 

 sized, further on, the shaking of all colonies that are strong enough at 

 the commencement of the honey-flow, before they contract the swarming 

 fever. Of course, the upper hive of combs retards preparation for 

 swarming for a long time; but If the shaking is not done till the bees 

 begin to crowd honey into the combs of the brood-chamber, thus restrict- 

 ing the laying of the queen, swarming is the result, the same thwarting 

 to a greater or less extent the full success of the plan. 



I now get two supers of sections, from the pile which has been 

 brought, 8 to 12 supers at a time, each time I have come to the apiary, 

 either with the horse or auto, each super containing 44 one-pound sec- 

 tions, as this is the number of 3J4x5%xl% sections my super covering a 



