18 



Farmers' Bulletin il98 



day, and sometimes eyen on the third 

 day after hiving. It may occur either 

 with natural swarms or with artifi- 

 cial swarms. Swarming out appar- 

 ently is often caused by a lack of 

 room in the new hive or by discom- 

 fort from some other cause, though 

 occasionally a newly hived swarm 

 may leave the hive when no cause for 

 their dissatisfaction is apparent. 

 This trouble may be prevented or 

 greatly reduced by placing an empty 

 hive body, without frames, below the 

 new brood chamber for two or three 

 days, by providing ample ventilation 

 and shade for the new hive at the 

 time of hiving the swarm, and by 

 using one or more empty combs which 

 have been used previously for brood 

 rearing in the new brood chamber in- 

 stead of frames of foundation exclu- 

 sively. Combs of unsealed brood are 

 not recommended for this purpose. 

 Entrance guards or queen traps may 

 be placed on the entrance of the new 

 hive for a few days to prevent the 

 escape of the queen. If newly hived 

 swarms are inclined to swarm out, but 

 the trouble usually can be prevented 

 by making provision for the comfort 

 of the bees, especially for the first day 

 or two. 



When artificial swarming is prac- 

 ticed (p. 19) in comb-honey produc- 

 tion, swarming out can be prevented 

 by taking away the combs of brood 

 in two installments, with an interval 

 of three or four days between. In 

 the first operation half or morg of 

 the brood should be taken away and 

 frames of foundation given in their 

 place, and three or four days later all 

 the remaining combs of brood should 

 be removed. 



UTILIZING THE PABENT COLONY FOR 

 PRODUCTIOX 



In the usual plan for hiving natural 

 swarms, the swarm is used as the pro- 

 ducing colony, the parent colony being 

 depr^yjg^ of most of its bees to give 

 greater 'Strength to the swarm. The 

 massing of most of th^ bees of both 

 the swarm and the parent cqlony iijto 

 one hive is necessary for best results 

 when' swarming occurs during the 

 honey flow and especially so when 

 the honey flow is short. It is, how- 

 ever, sometimes desirable to mass the 

 bees together in the parent colony 

 instead of in the swarm. This may 

 be accomplished by returning the 

 swarm without the queen to the hive 

 from which it came. Seven days later 

 all but one of the queen cells should 

 be destroyed, the remaining cell being 

 left to requeen the colony. 



Great care must be taken in destroy- 

 ing the queen cells to be sure that only 

 one is left, for if more than one queen 

 cell Is left the colony may be expected 

 to swarm soon after the first young 

 queen emerges. It is usually neces- 

 sary to shake most of the bees from 

 each comb as the combs are examined 

 for queen cells in order to be sure 

 that no queen cells are overlooked. 

 The comb containing the queen cell 

 that is to be left should not be shaken, 

 since if this is done the Immature 

 queen may be Injured. 



It sometimes happens that some col- 

 onies treated in this way will swarm 

 soon after the young queen emerges 

 from the one cell that was left, leav- 

 ing the parent colony greatly depleted 

 in bees and hopelessly queenless. 

 Again, the queen may fail to emerge, 

 in wliich case, unless a queen or 

 another queen cell Is supplied prompt- 

 ly, the colony, being hopelessly queen- 

 less, works with reduced energy and 

 later, of course, would become de- 

 pleted. For these reasons some bee- 

 keepers prefer to destroy all the queen 

 cells five days after the swarm has 

 issued, then again five days later, at 

 which time a young laying queen is 

 introduced by means of an ordinary 

 Introducing cage. 



By hiving the swarm back Into its 

 own hive without the queen and per- 

 mitting the colony to rear only one 

 young queen, or leaving them queen- 

 less 10 days and then introducing a 

 laying queen, the colony is left In a 

 condition comparable to the parent 

 colony in nature, except that it retains 

 all of the workers instead of losing 

 the bees of the swarm. Such colonies 

 usually do not swarm again the same 

 season. This method does not require 

 extra hives and equipment, but it 

 probably" involves some loss in the less 

 energetic work while the colonies are 

 queenless. 



TREATMENT TO ANTICIPATE SWARMING 



The emphasis given to the care of 

 natural swarms on the preceding pages 

 Is largely for the purpose of bringing 

 out the principles which underlie, the 

 successful methods used to anticipate 

 swarming. Commercial honey . pro- 

 ducers who pperate several apiaries 

 can not afford to permit natural 

 swarming b^t must use some system 

 by which swarming can be controlled 

 by visiting each apiary at certain in- 

 tervals and applying remedial meas- 

 ures if preventive measures are not 

 suflScIent. Producers of extracted 

 honey who have good combs, good 

 equipment, and a good strain of bees 



