802 
SWARMING 
the working force of the colony together in 
the same hive while the honey flow lasts. 
(See After-swarming, also Artificial 
Swarming.) In comb-honey production 
the parent hive should be moved away a 
week after hiving the swarm in order to 
draw away the young bees that have learned 
to fly in the mean time, adding them to 
the colony on the old stand, thus strength¬ 
ening the colony that is working in the 
supers and at the same time preventing 
after-swarming. 
In locations where the swarming season 
occurs several weeks previous to the main 
honey flow, so that both the parent colony 
and the swarm can be built up to full¬ 
gathering strength before the honey flow, 
it is not necessary to carry out this pro¬ 
cedure, but all after-swarming should be 
prevented either by moving away the par¬ 
ent colony just before the young queens 
emerge or by killing all but one of the 
queen-cells. If after-swarms were permit¬ 
ted to issue the parent colony would be de¬ 
pleted too much to build up before the 
honey flow, and the after-swarms would be 
too small to be productive. 
WHAT TO USE IN THE NEW HIVE WHEN 
HIVING SWARMS. 
For extracted-honey production either 
empty combs or full sheets of foundation 
may be used in the new brood-chamber 
when hiving swarms. When there are not 
enough empty combs for a full set in each 
hive, usually a few empty combs are used 
and the remaining spaces filled out with 
frames containing full sheets of founda¬ 
tion. Sometimes only one empty comb is 
used, the rest of the frames containing full 
sheets of foundation. This is better than 
to use a full set of frames of foundation. 
For comb-honey production it is not ad¬ 
visable to use a full set of empty combs in 
the new brood-chamber when hiving swarms, 
for when this is done the bees are inclined 
to store their honey in these combs, neglect¬ 
ing the work in the supers. This is especial¬ 
ly true for colonies that are of only me¬ 
dium strength. For this reason it is bet¬ 
ter to use full sheets of foundation in the 
brood-chamber when hiving swarms in 
comb-honey production. When this is 
done at least one empty comb should 
be used to reduce the tendency to swarm 
out, as sometimes occurs when frames of 
foundation exclusively are used in the new 
brood-chamber. If no empty combs are 
available for this purpose, it is well to 
place an empty hive-body under the new 
brood-chamber for two or three days if the 
bees are inclined to swarm out. 
At one time it was thought best to use 
only narrow strips of foundation in the 
frames in the new brood-chamber, on the 
theory that the bees will then be compelled 
to store their honey in the supers on ac¬ 
count of the greater length of time neces¬ 
sary to build comb in the brood-chamber 
when the narrow strips of foundation only 
are used. Under some conditions this plan 
gives excellent results in comb-honey pro¬ 
duction; but it is open to the serious objec¬ 
tion that entirely too much drone comb is 
built in the brood-frames, and also there is 
a tendency to store pollen in the sections 
during the first few days after being hived 
since there is no comb in the brood-chamber 
in which to store pollen. This latter objec¬ 
tion can be overcome by using one empty 
comb in the new brood-chamber to catch 
the incoming pollen; but this would, to a 
certain extent, defeat the purpose of the 
use of narrow strips of foundation only, 
for it would afford a place for immediate 
storage of nectar in the brood-chamber in¬ 
stead of in the sections. Another objection 
to the use of empty combs in the new brood- 
chamber in connection with frames contain¬ 
ing only narrow strips of foundation is 
that the bees would begin the building of 
drone combs just that much sooner. Usually 
the bees will build the equivalent of four 
or five standard frames of worker comb 
before they begin building drone comb. For 
this reason some beekeepers have advocated 
contracting the new brood-chamber to five 
standard frames when hiving swarms, but 
this plan has been largely abandoned be¬ 
cause it leaves the colony destitute of hon¬ 
ey and greatly weakened at the end of the 
season. 
It is sometimes convenient to hive swarms 
on combs containing honey. When combs 
of honey which are. mostly unsealed are 
used the bees will begin to transfer the 
honey into the supers almost immediately 
after being hived; but if combs of sealed 
honey are used the bees will often sulk or 
work with less vigor in the supers, appar¬ 
ently objecting to uncapping and trans¬ 
ferring the sealed honey to the supers. It 
