Swarm Control 



17 



A single empty comb together with 

 frames of foundation affords such a 

 limited number of empty cells immedi- 

 ately available within the brood cham- 

 ber that its use does not tend to reduce 

 the work in the supers materially and 

 it affords storage space for incoming 

 pollen which might otherwise be carried 

 to the supers. The use of a single 

 etopty comb also greatly reduces the 

 tendency to swarm out (p. 17). When 

 combs of honey which are mostly un- 

 sealed are used, the bees may begin to 

 transfer this honey into the supers 

 almost immediately after being hived. 

 When combs containing only sealed 

 and emerging brood together with 

 honey and pollen are used, there are 

 so few vacant cells that these are 

 usually prepared to receive the eggs 

 as the queen resumes egg laying, so 

 that most of the incoming nectar must 

 be taken to the supers. As the re- 

 maining brood emerges the vacated 

 cells are usually prepared for eggs un- 

 til toward the close of the honey flow. 



The furniture used in the new brood 

 chamber also has an influence upon 

 the tendency to swarm again the same 

 season. , When the bees build a set of 

 new combs from narrow strips of 

 foundation or full sheets of founda- 

 tion they rarely swarm again, but 

 when swarms are hived on combs of 

 emerging brood, empty combs, or 

 combs of honey, sometimes many of 

 them may attempt to swarm again 

 the same season if the honey flow is 

 of considerable duration. As to the 

 effect upon this tendency, the various 

 combinations of furniture for the new 

 brood chamber usually stand in the 

 following order, increasing through 

 the series: (1) Narrow strips of foun- 

 dation, (2) full sheets of foundation, 

 (3) full sheets of foundation together 

 with one or more empty combs, (4) 

 empty combs, (5) combs of honey, and 

 (6) combs of emerging brood. 



Although narrow strips of founda- 

 tion stand first, both as to forcing im- 

 mediate work in the supers and as to 

 reducing the tendency to swarm again 

 the same season, their use is open to 

 the serious objection that so much 

 drone comb is usually buUt that many 

 of the combs built in this way are not 

 suitable for subsequent use in the 

 brood chamber. Some comb-honey 

 producers, however, use them, then at 

 the close of the honey flow unite the 

 parent colony and the swarm, placing 

 the brood chamber of the parent col- 

 ony above that of the swarm ; then in 

 the fall the lower brood chamber may 

 be removed and the now empty combs 

 cut out to be rendered into wax. 



Many comb-honey producers prefer to 

 use full sheets of foundation in all 

 the frames or in all but one of the 

 frames of the new brood chamber for 

 hiving swarms. 



When either narrow strips of foun- 

 dation or full sheets of foundation 

 are used in the new brood chamber, a 

 queen excluder should be used when 

 the supers are transferred from the 

 parent colony to the swarm at the 

 time of hiving, and precautions should 

 be taken also against swarming out 

 (p. 17). 



CONTKACTION OF THE BBOOD CHAMBEB 



If the new brood chamber is con- 

 tracted SO that little work is required 

 to flu it and so that most of the bees of 

 the colony are crowded into the 

 supers, the work in the supers should 

 continue without interruption after a- 

 swarm has been hived. It was for- 

 merly a common practice to reduce the 

 new brood chamber to five or six 

 Langstroth frames by inserting divi- 

 sion boards at the sides of the hive to 

 flll out the remaining space. This 

 should not be done untU two or three 

 days after the swarm has been hived, 

 for contracting the brood chamber at 

 the time of hiving the swarm may 

 cause the bees to swarm out. 



Contraction of the brood chamber 

 forces the bees to do most of their 

 work in the supers ; therefore a good 

 crop of honey may be obtained in this 

 way even during a short honey flow, 

 but after the honey has been re- 

 moved from the hive at the close of 

 the season such colonies are practi- 

 cally without stores and should either 

 be reunited with the parent colony or 

 supplied with a sufficient quantity of 

 honey for fall and winter stores. 

 This can be done easily by leaving 

 for the bees a second hive body with 

 combs which are practically filled 

 with sealed honey. 



Combs of honey and combs contain- 

 ing only sealed brood, together with 

 honey and pollen in the new brood 

 chamber, have an effect similar to 

 that of contraction of the brood cham- 

 ber. Combs with most of the honey 

 sealed should not be used for this 

 purpose unless they are placed at the 

 sides, since such combs in the middle 

 of the new brood chamber may cause 

 a stagnation of colony activity (pp. 

 7 and 8). 



SWARMING OUT 



After a swarm has been hived it 

 sometimes deserts the new hive or 

 " swarms out." This may occur the 

 day the swarm is hived, or the next 



