186 FIFTY TEARS AMONG THE BEES 



It is the simple plan of making a shaken swarm, say from A, 

 and then piling all the brood from A on another strong colony, 

 B. European beekeepers tell us that with this accession of 

 brood B will not swarm. S. Sinmiins, of England, and some 

 others, give A half the bees from B. A would be all right for 

 comb honey, but B would not — at least not right away — but it 

 would be all right for extracted honey. 



ACCIDENTAL SWAHIIS. 



The best I can do there will sometimes be what might be 

 called accidental swarms. Perhaps & strong colony has in some 

 way losl its cjueen in the busy season, and when the first-reared 

 young cjueen emerges — if one is allowed to emerge — there will 

 surely be a swarm issue. (Generally such a thing will be headed 

 off before the young queen has a chance to emerge, but once in 

 a great while she gets ahead of me. 



Although there is to me nothing entrancing in the sight of 

 such a swarm whirling through the air, there is one thing I do 

 \-ery much enjoy in it — it is the sight of the seething mass 

 hurrying into the hive when dumped in front of it, as in Fig. 

 69. You will see that a deep bottom-board has been placed in 

 front of No. 32, on which the swarm was dumped (it had pre- 

 viously settled on a low plum tree), and the bees have flowed all 

 (i\er the sides of the bottom-board, and also over the front of 

 the liive. But I don't want the distress of seeing them pouring 

 out of the hive in a swarm for the sake of the pleasure of seeing 

 them hustle back into the same hive when dumped down in front 

 of it. 



TAKING OFF SECTIONS. 



jVs fast as supers are filled they are taken off. I do not 

 think I could be bothered to take off each section as fast as 

 finished, putting in an empty one to take its place. It would 

 take too much time. Neither do I like to wait till every section 

 in a super is entirely finished. Unless the bees are ciuwiled 

 very much, there will be some uncapped cells in the outside 

 sections which the bees will be very long in sealing. If these 

 are wailed for, the central sections may lose a little of their 



