98 



Texas Depabtment of AIgeicultuee. 



entrance and lifting the hive up. This will also give the bees a better 



passage-way into and. out of the hive during the busy working season. 



Shading the hive will aid in cooling it and will also help to keep 



down swarming. 



Swarming can be delayed 

 in many instances, and of- 

 ten entirely discouraged, by 

 destroying the queen cells 

 every nine or ten days, but 

 this must be done carefully 

 and not a single cell over- 

 looked, or the bees will 

 swarm just the same. Be- 

 sides requiring much te- 

 dious work, and the desire 

 of the bees is to swarm, and 

 rebuilding cells throughout 

 the greater part of the sea- 

 son, they do not work with 

 the vigor they would if they 

 were not discouraged in 

 their efforts. These precau- 

 tions only help to allay the 

 swarming desire, and are 

 effective only before the bees 

 have gotten into the notion 



„, . , * V *-i t. to swarm. Once they are 



Stone in entrance for nive ventilation. , , . ■■ . j „ -i • . 



determmed to do so, it is a 



difficult matter to prevent it. The only proper remedy then is to sat- 

 isfy their desire, not by allowing them to swarm according to their 

 own sweet will, but by doing it for them. 



The most successful plan generally resorted to, is "the brushed 

 or shaken swarm" method, one that can be modified to suit local and 

 particular conditions. Briefly, colonies that are found preparing to 

 swarm, and with queen cells in the hives, are treated by shaking 

 nearly all the bees off their combs as they are removed from the hive, 

 and then placed in an empty hive, which is set on a new place, given 

 a caged queen, or the remaining bees allowed to rear a new queen 

 from several cells left on a comb that has not been shaken, and the 

 inmates destroyed by the jars. There should be enough bees to prop- 

 erly protect and care for the brood, especially during cool weather. 

 The combs removed are replaced in the old hive by frames contain- 

 ing full sheets of comb foundation. This change has the same effect 

 upon the bees as if they had swarmed naturally. The bees will be- 

 have exactly like a swarm, and no colony of bees works with greater 

 vim and vigor than a newly hived st/arm. This treatment results 

 in an increase in the number of colonies. If this is not desired, the 

 number can easily be reduced after the swarming season by reunit- 

 ing as many colonies as is necessary. 



It should be understood that it is not necessary to treat each colony 

 in the apiary as described. Only those that are actually preparing 

 to swarm receive this treatment, and the number is not large if the 



