8 



Farmers' Bulletin 1198 



a direct bearing upon an advanta- 

 geous distribution of bees tliroughout 

 the more remote portions of tlie hive. 



Usually the tendency to swarm is 

 stronger during the 'early part of the 

 honey flow if the colonies are strong 

 in young bees at that time. It is im- 

 portant, therefore, that each colony 

 expand into and occupy promptly the 

 first super that is given. Tp accom- 

 plish this it is necessary that this first 

 super be attractive to the young hive 

 workers. If supers, either for comb 

 honey or for extracted honey, con- 

 taining only foundation, be given to 

 a strong colony just before the honey 

 flow the bees will not take possession 

 of them and begin work on the foun- 

 dation to any extent until the honey 

 flow has begun, and meanwhile the 

 colony is crowded for room. The ad- 

 dition of this room with only founda- 

 tion, therefore, does not affect the 

 distribution of the bees until they 

 take possession of and occupy the 

 super, while in the meantime condi- 

 tions for swarming may develop rap- 

 idly. On the other hand, if a super 

 of empty combs be given to a strong 

 colony previous to the honey flow, the 

 younger bees in great numbers imme- 

 diately take possession of the added 

 super and begin to repair the comb 

 "and to prepare it for use. If the col- 

 ony is strong these bees do not merely 

 explore the super but actually occupy 

 it, the brood chamber, therefore, being 

 relieved of many thousand young bees 

 that are not yet old enough for field 

 work. 



In either comb-honey production or 

 extracted-honey production, if the col- 

 onies are not strong when the first 

 super is given they may refuse to 

 expand into and occupy ^t or they may 

 take possession of only a small por- 

 tion of it. Such colonies usually 

 store any honey they may accumulate 

 at this time in the combs of the brood 

 chamber adjacent to the brood, and 

 if in this way they surround them- 

 selves with honey and seal it they 

 are not inclined to pass this finished 

 work readily to expand into the supers 

 beyond. In this way they may block 

 off and occupy only a small portion 

 of their hive and crowd this limited 

 area even though empty combs are 

 used in the supers above, whereas 

 strong colonies readily expand be- 

 yond such barriers. For this reason 

 it is sometimes more difficult to pre- 

 vent swarming in colonies of medium 

 strength than in strong ones. Any 

 barrier of any kind between the brood 

 nest and the supers becomes especially 

 objectionable in colonies of deficient 



strength. Some strains of bees are 

 more inclined to limit their activities 

 to a portion of the hive in this way 

 than other strains, and may be more 

 inclined to swarm for this reason. 



The first super usually should be 

 given before the bees need it, and 

 especially in extracted-honey produc- 

 tion it should be given as soon as the 

 bees are strong enough to occupy It, 

 in order to furnish a place outside of 

 the brood nest for the multitude of 

 oncoming young bees. This first super 

 for extracted-honey production should 

 be supplied with empty combs, or at 

 least half of its frames should contain 

 empty combs. If no empty combs are 

 available for this purpose, some of the 

 combs of brood should be put into the 

 super to start work there promptly 

 and distribute the bees over greater 

 surface. The first comb-honey supers 

 are usually put on a little later than 

 supers for extracted honey and should 

 contain some sections in which the 

 combs are already built, which were 

 saved from the previous year. These 

 combs usually induce the bees to oc- 

 cupy the super earlier than when only 

 foundation is used in the sections. 



As work progresses in the first super 

 and the cells are being built out to 

 full length, the room that can be occu- 

 pied by bees decreases, making it nec- 

 essary, if the super has been com- 

 pletely occupied, for some of th.e bees 

 to go elsewhere. When the honey is 

 finally ripened and sealed, few bees 

 remain in the supers. Therefore, if 

 a second super is not given until the 

 first one is finished, most of the super 

 workers are forced to go back into the 

 brood chamber. In the meantime there 

 is no place for the oncoming young 

 bees to take up Inside woris before 

 they are old enough to begin to work 

 in the fields. The super workers, 

 forced out of the super back into the 

 brood chamber, added to those emerg- 

 ing rapidly in the brood chamber, give 

 a large number of bees there which 

 must remain unemployed until they 

 are old enough for field work, thus 

 causing a condition highly conducive 

 to swarming. There is, therefore, a 

 critical period not only just before the 

 bees take possession of the first super 

 of the season, but to a certain extent 

 just previous to the giving of each 

 additional super. 



During the early part of the honey 

 flow when swarming is imminent addi- 

 tional supers should be supplied as the 

 bees need them, before any of the 

 workers are crowded back to the brood 

 chamber. If the honey flow is good, 

 the additional supers should be given 



