Swarm Control 



11 



NATURAL SWARMING 



After having used all the known 

 preventive measures, there will still be 

 some colonies that attempt to swarm 

 in certain locations in some seasons, 

 even in extracted-honey production, 

 and in comb-honey production a large 

 percentage of colonies may attempt -to 

 swarm. In either case, but especially 

 in extracted-honey production, some of 

 these swarms are probably a result of 

 the imperfect application of preven- 

 tive measures in time to prevent the 

 beginning of the series of events which 

 lead up to the actual issuing of the 

 swarm. Except in certain localities, 

 the beekeeper whose equipment and 

 management meet the requirements 

 previously outlined in this bulletin as 

 swarm preventive measures should be 

 troubled little by swarming if ex- 

 tracted honey is being produced. 



CORRECTION OP CONGESTIOX BY 

 SWARMING 



The conditions within the brood 

 chamber are changed greatly by 

 swarming, both in the swarm and in 

 the parent colony. In the swarm 

 there are no very young bees and, of 

 course, no emerging bees during the 

 first three weeks. The workers of 

 the swarm that are not needed for the 

 work inside the new hive are old 

 enough for work in the fields, and 

 when most of the bees of a colony can 

 go to the fields for nectar during the 

 heat of the day a surprisingly large 

 number may be massed together in 

 one hive without causing a stagnation 

 of their activities. When the first 

 young bees begin to emerge three 

 weeks later the daily emergence of 

 young is small in comparison with 

 that of a colony during the spring 

 brood-rearing period ; therefore the 

 swarms usually do not become greatly 

 congested with young bees again dur- 

 ing the same season. Swarms that 

 are hived in an empty hive on a new 

 location seldom swarm again the same 

 season, especially where the season is 

 short, but if they are hived on empty 

 combs or combs containing honey or 

 a little emerging brood they may do 

 so. Even when most of the workers of 

 both the parent colony- and the swarm 

 are reunited, or when two or more 

 s>warms are hived together in one hive, 

 the bees are usually satisfied without 

 further swarming if plenty of room is 

 given in the supers. 



The parent colony loses most of its 

 field workers and the queen when a 

 swarm issues, but it has a large 

 amount of brood and several queen 



cells usually sealed or nearly ready to 

 be sealed at the time of the issuing of 

 the swarm. When the young queens 

 begin to emerge about a week later, if 

 the beekeeper does not interfere, the 

 colony may cast one or more after- 

 swarms, each accompanied by one or 

 more of the recently emerged virgin 

 queens. When there are no longer 

 sufiicient bees left to divide up among 

 the emerging queens, all but one of 

 the young queens are killed, this sur- 

 viving one in the normal course of 

 events later becoming established as 

 the new mother of the parent colony. 

 The rapid emergence of young bees 

 soon restores the parent colony to 

 good strength, but when swarming 

 t^kes place during the honey fiow the 

 parent colony may not recover suffi- 

 cient strength in field workers to take 

 an important part in gathering the 

 season's crop of honey. After the 

 young queen becomes established a 

 parent colony seldom swarms again 

 the same season, even though It may 

 become quite populous and the season 

 may be prosperous. 



Thus neither the swarm having the 

 old queen and the older bees In estab- 

 lishing itself in a new home, nor the 

 parent colony having the young queen 

 in reestablishing itself in the old home, 

 is inclined to swarm again the same 

 season. In each case there is an inter- 

 ruption in the emergence of young 

 bees. These are important facts in 

 the control of swarming. 



INFLUENCE OP YOUNG QUEENS 



The fact that parent colonies sel- 

 dom swarm again the same season has 

 led to the belief that colonies having 

 young queens do not swarm the first 

 summer of the queen's life, but while 

 such colonies are less inclined to 

 swarm the use of young queens can 

 not be depended upon except under 

 certain conditions. If a young queen 

 is introduced into a colony previous 

 to the swarming season after a period 

 of queenlessness, so that there is a 

 period of 10 days during which no 

 eggs are laid, there is usually no at- 

 tempt to swarm a^ain during the same 

 season, especially if this interval of 

 no egg laying occurs late enough so 

 that the young queen is not able to 

 reach her maximum of egg laying be- 

 fore the close of the honey fiow. If, 

 however, the old queen is removed 

 from a colony previous to the swarm- 

 ing season and a young laying queen 

 is introduced at once without an in- 

 terval of no egg laying, the tendency 

 to swarm may be reduced little, if 



