Swarm Control 



9 



as fast as the bees can be induced to 

 occupy them, in order that the expan- 

 sion of the work and the room in the 

 supers shall keep pace with the on- 

 coming of the young workers. Each 

 ivewly added super should be so ac- 

 cessible, comfortable, attractive, and 

 advantageously placed that young bees 

 will come up and occupy It at once, 

 which they may fail to do if newly 

 added supers are too hot, too cold, too 

 remote, diflScult to ventilate, or other- 

 wise unattractive. Supers should be 

 snug and warm during cool weather 

 and protected from too much heat dur- 

 ing hot weather. During the latter 

 part of the honey flow, as the swarm- 

 ing season begins to wane, the bees 

 may be crowded as to super room to 

 induce them to finish the work well 

 and concentrate the honey in fewer 

 supers, but by this time there is less 

 danger of swarming. 



SPACE FOR THE EVAPORATION OF NECTAR 



Super room should be adequate not 

 only for the storage of ripened honey 

 but also for the distribution of the 

 thin incoming nectar throughout a 

 large surface of comb with but a small 

 amount in each cell, to facilitate the 

 evaporation of water from the nectar. 

 A large amount of comb surface is 

 needed for this purpose in regions 

 where the nectar is especially thin 

 when it is first brought in. In arid 

 climates not so much extra room is 

 needed for the evaporation of nectar 

 as in humid climates. When all the 

 cells available for ripening nectar are 

 in use during a heavy honey flow a 

 slowing down of the work of the 

 colony must follow, for the bees will 

 not flll the cells full of raw nectar. 

 When nectar is thin and abundant, 

 the evaporating space may all be in 

 use before much honey has actually 

 been stored, which may result in a 

 stagnation of the work of the colony, 

 and in turn may increase the ten- 

 dency to swarm. For this reason it is 

 usually necessary to give more supers 

 during the honey flow than are ac- 

 tually filled with ripened honey. 



TIERING UP SUPERS 



In producing comb honey if the 

 honey flow is good and swarming is 

 imminent each newly added super 

 may be placed immediately above the 

 brood chamber; that is, between the 

 brood chamber and the supers in 

 which work has already been started. 

 This induces the bees to begin new 

 work promptly and takes additional 



thousands of young bees out of the 

 brood chamber into the supers. (See 

 Farmers' Bulletin 1039.) In ex- 

 tracted-honey production when empty 

 combs are used in the supers it is 

 not so essential to place the newly 

 added ones below those already on 

 the hive, but to do so undoubtedly 

 entices more bees out of the brood 

 chamber than when they are placed 

 on top of the other supers. Shallow 

 extracting supers are usually tiered 

 up in the same manner as comb 

 honey supers, each newly added one 

 being placed below the supers already 

 on the hive during the time that 

 swarming is imminent. If full-depth 

 extracting supers are used, half of 

 the combs may be removed from the 

 middle of the partly fllled super and 

 empty combs or frames of founda- 

 tion taken from the new super may 

 be put in their place. The partly 

 filled combs that were removed are 

 then placed in the middle of the new 

 super, after which it is placed on 

 top. This process may be repeated 

 if necessary as often as it is desira- 

 ble to give additional room close to 

 the brood chamber. 



Great care should be taken, espe- 

 cially in comb-honey production, to 

 discontinue such a rapid expansion 

 of super room in time to have the 

 work well finished. During the lat- 

 ter part of the honey flow empty 

 supers may be added on top of those 

 already on the hive in either comb- 

 honey or extracted-honey production, 

 to prevent too much incomplete work 

 at the end of the honey flow, for at 

 this time there is less probability of 

 swarming than earlier in the season. 



In regions where the swarming 

 season occurs during the honey flow 

 it is of great importance that every 

 condition possible be provided that 

 will entice the younger bees from the 

 brood chamber into the supers and 

 the fleld bees from the brood chamber 

 to the flelds. If the brood nests can 

 thus be kept free from too many un- 

 employed bees during the swarming 

 season there should be little inclina- 

 tion to swarm. 



INFLUENCE OF IDLE FIELD BEES 



The brood chamber may be con- 

 gested with bees, however, and 

 swarming may sometimes occur ap- 

 parently through no fault in the dis- 

 tribution of young bees within the 

 hive, since a crowded condition may 

 be brought about or intensified by the 

 fleld bees as a result of certain pe- 



