BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The control of swarming when operating for extracted honey, especially if large hives are used (or small hives with one or more stories), is comparatively simple; but when one proposes to run for _comb_ honey, and feels compelled to use small brood-chambers because of the shortness of the season in this locality, the problem has not been so easy of solution. But in Germany, and lately in America, a plan has come in vogue that looks now as if it _might_ give us control. At all events, those who have tried it are very enthusiastic in its praise, and feel that for them, at least, the vexed question has been settled for all time. The plan is, in brief, this :
After the honey-flow has begun, and perhaps three or four days (not earlier) before the colony is expected to east a swarm, the hive is moved to one side of the stand, and an empty one, just like it, is put in its place.* In this hive are placed frames having foundation starters or frames with full sheets --preferably the latter. But if neither is available, empty combs may be used. The bees of the parent colony are then shaken or brushed in front of the entrance of the _new_ hive on the _old_ stand. Some go so far as to brush _all_ the bees out of the old hive; and this can be done if the weather is hot and the nights warm; for young hatching brood will soon be out to take care of the young brood. The supers from the parent hive are next put on the new one. The parent colony is then moved to a new location or left by the side of the new hive with its entrance facing in the same direction. In either case the entrance should be contracted.
If work is already partly begun in the super, the bees will continue work, and rush the honey above. In some cases it may be advisable to use perforated zinc between the super and brood-nest to keep the queen below.
The plan will meet favor, especially with those in l ealities where the season is short and the honey-flow rapid; and it will doubtless enable many usualiy getting no comb honey at all to secure a good crop.
The question may be askel. "What is done with the parent hive and all its brood?" If left beside the new colony, the brood, when hatched out, is shaken in front of the new hive, so that at the last drive all the bees that would have been hatched in the original colony are now given to the brushed
Already over the supers, they project on the front and rear, and on the sides enough to give a reasonable amount of shade. In the middle of the day the hive is fairly well shaded.
Further particulars on the subject of entrances, and their relation to the prevention of swarming, will be found under the heid of Entrances.
Modittle modified shock - swarming method.
This is a plan that involves some of the principles of shook swarming; and in certain localities it can be employed to very good advantage. The method in brief is as follows: Sets of partly filled extracting-frames from weak colonies the year before, as will be explained later, are kept over winter in the honey-house, until the spring or early summer, when upper stories are filled with them, and placed on all strong colonies. The idea of this procedure is to make the colony below feel rich in stores so that there will be no curtailment of brood-rearting. If any honey should come in from fruit-bloom or other sources before the main flow it is promptly carried upstairs without crowding the queen below.
A week or two prior to the expected honey-flow or swarming season this upper story is lifted off and the old colony moved to one side. On the old stand is placed another empty hive. The set of combs, all save one, that were originally in the upper story, containing more or less honey, are now put down in the empty hive on the old stand. One comb is left out in the center, and replaced by a frame partly filled with brood from another hive. On this hive, at the parent stand thus prepared is placed a comb-honey super containing sections filled with full sheets of foundation, and having at the center ten or twelve other sections with partly drawn combs. On this super is placed another of sections with only full sheets of foundation. Last of all the cover is put on. The frames of brood put in the old hive removed to one side are now taken out and shaken in front of the entrance of this newly prepared hive at the old stand. The brood is then stacked up on the few weak colonies not run for comb honey. As the bees hatch the combs are more or less filled with honey during the season, thus furnishing the sets of extracting-frames to be used for the comb-honey colonies the next year. The queen in the comb-honey hive will have the one frame of brood partly filled where she can begin having. The large amount of honey in the brood-nest the bees will begin carrying upstairs to the supers in order to give the queen more room in which to lay. Thus work is started in filling the sections before the honey-low actually begins; and when honey does come in, the bees continue to store it above without any swarming. In the meantime the queen occupies every available cell in the lower part of the hive.
Mr. G. M. Doolittle, the author of this system, has tested it most thoroughly several seasons; and one year in particular, when the season was only fair, secured an average of 114! points of comb honey per colony, _with no swarms_ at any outward.
While the first sections will contain a little old honey, yet if it be buckwheat orother good honey it does not impair the flavor, for there are many who like a little buckwheat flavor in comb honey; and such sections, Mr. Doolittle says, sell at the highest market price.
THE inland system of swarm control.
Mr. J. E. Hand, of Birmingham, O., has developed a system of comb-honey production and swarm control, in connection with a modified Heddon hive, for certain localities, that is quite unique. While we have not tested it ourselves, there are some features about it that look as if they might work.
It should be understood that this system of swarm control is adaptable only to divisible hives which will be found described and illustrated under Hivreselsewhere. Indeed, the reader would do well to pernse carefully what is said on the Heddon divisible hive and the Hand improvement before he considers its treatment here.
Early in the spring Mr. Hand divides his colonies into three groups, each colony being in two brood-chambers of his divisible hive. The very strong he puts in one group; the medium in another; and the light form the last group. As this system involves the use of only strong colonies for honey production he aims to force all except the very light ones into powerful stocks in time for the honey. To that end the strong-colony group is left to itself, and the medium are to rob from the light. From the latter he takes one brood-section, with most of the bees and the queen, and gives it to one of the medium group, placing a perforated zinc honey-board between the added portion and the other colony. The light colony from which the brood-chamber was taken will be made, by the operation, a mere nucleus, although some returning bees will, of course, add toits force. So he strengthens up every medium group colony by drawing a brood-section from each of the light group; for it should be stated that the medium and light class are equal in number, or at least they are made so; and, contrary to what many would suppose, the queen in the upper brood-section that was given to the medium-group colony will go on with her egg-laying, and in a comparatively short time the two queens in the colony so treated will have a larger force of bees for the harvest than the strong colonies in the group first mentioned.
As soon as a little honey begins to come in he puts an extracting-super, with a perforated zinc honey-board underneath, on top of each cf the strong colonies having one queen, and likewise he gives an extracting-super to each of the triple-deckers, as we shall call them, containing two queens. The object of this is to get the bees in the _habit_ of going above, and to discourage any tendency on the part of the bees to store in the brood-sections; for it is a basic principle of the Hand system to have each brood-section jammed full of brood in various stages of development, so that, when the honey does come, it must go into the supers.
As soon as the honey-flow starts up briskly, he is ready to put on the comb-honey supers, containing sections partly drawn out during fruit-bloom. The extracting-super on each of the triple-decker two-queen colonies is changed to the bottom of the same stand--that is, placed between the bottom-board and the lower brood-section. The top brood-section with its queen is now given to one of the one-brood-section nuclei. The super of partly drawn sections being placed between the two remaining brood-sections; after, the queen is driven into the lower section and there confined by a perforated zinc honey-board. All the other two-queen triple-deckers are treated in precisely the same way.
Mr. Hand explains that the honey in the extracting-super next to the bottom-board will be removed by the bees and put into the comb-honey super, that being the only place for it. This starts work in the sections immediately--an important factor in swarm control. When work is nicely begun in this, another super of sections is put on top of the first one with the other brood section still on top of the whole. This manipulation breaks up all tendency to swarm, and the bees go on merrily storing honey.
The first-mentioned group, that consisted of strong colonies having one queen each, is now given another extracting-super, one to each hive, the saa being placed under the first one given; and at the same time each of the nuclei to which was given a good brood section from the two-queen hives is given a super of extracting-combs.
It will be observed that Mr. Hand runs for both comb and extracted honey. The hives being all in divisible sections it takes but a few moments to perform these manipulations, as there is no handling of frames.
The principle of swarm control comes in right here: The bees of all the colonies start going above into extracting-supers, which they enter without hesitation. When they get to work nicely in these they are given a comb-honey super, as explained under the general subject of Comb Honey. See the Barber and Townsend methods. But Mr. Hand goes one step further. He _does not allow a single section in the comb-honey supers to be capped over_, as he says that would be likely to induce swarming. When the honey of such supers is about ready to cap they are removed and others given in their stead. After the honey-flow is over, the sections are completed by feeding back thinned-down extracted honey in a large feeder under the two brood-sections. The honey fed back is that secured in the extracting-supers already mentioned. The bees are fed two days in succession followed by an interim of two days alternately, during which they have time to thicken the honey and deposit it in the sections not quite c completed. But in feeding back, there must be a _young_ vigorous queen, and a large force of _young_ bees in a colony reduced down to one brood-section of combs that are not old, for dark ones will soil the sections above. Instead of using colonies that produced most of this honey, Mr. Hand prepares a few special ones, reducing them down to the one brood-section. This work is all done after the honey-flow. The secret of Mr. Hand's success in the control of swarms tests on the frequent manipulation of the brood-sections and getting the bees started into extracting-supers (into which they go readily); then substituting for them sections of combs partly drawn out (we omitted to state that these were drawn out during fruit-bloom). Another factor in the problem is not allowing any comb-honey super to be capped over, but giving the bees fresh supers; and then, last of all, feeding back _after_ the harvest is over, when there will be no tendency to swarm, and the bees can, at leisure, fill out to the wood and complete each section. And right here Mr. Hand claims to be able to produce all fancy honey, because, by his process of feeding back, he can have every section nicely completed, with no unfinished boxes at the close of the harvest, the honey being so nice because finished with a rush. There is no slow work and no travel-stain; and, what is more, he has a lot of extracted honey that is not all taken up by the feeding-back process. For the principles involved, see Feeding and Feeders; sub-head, Feeding Back.
## 7 The aspinwall non-swarming hive
All systems thus far described relate to a method or methods of management of the colony to prevent swarming; but Mr. 1.2. Aspinwall, of Jackson, Mich., has been directing his thought to the construction of a _hive_ to accomplish the same purpose. He has devised one embodying some new principles which experts believe will effectually handle the swarming problem without any
shaking or brushing of bees--cutting-out of queen cells, caging of queens, clipping of queens' wings--in fact, without the employment of any methods formerly used for the purpose.
We are not prepared to pass an opinion yet, but believe Mr. Aspinwall has a _principle_ that is good, relating to a scheme for separating the combs during the swarming season about one inch apart by a series of lee-spaced slattted dummies inserted alternately with the frames. These dummies have perpendicular slats \(\sharp\) inch wide, a bee-space apart, held together in a suitable frame. The brood-frames proper have three perpendicular slats at each end, which some might be, the energy wasted in getting ready to swarm, building queen cells, and finally throwing off half the force of the bees into another hive, is all concentrated as _one force_ in one hive, where the bees seem disposed to devote all their resources to the supers. While this hive has not been tested more than two or three seasons, yet results thus far have been very favorable; but, like a good many other things that have promised much, it may fall short of the anticipations of its friends.
Details of construction are shown in the illustrations herewith. Each comb, it will be noted, is surrounded on each side and each end by a series of bee-spaces made by perpendicular slats. If the bees would allow combs an inch apart, and occupy this space without building comb, the same results might be secured; but as they fill up any space larger than \(\sharp\) inch with comb it becomes necessary to put in a scheme of beespaces which they will not fill. It therefore comes about that the hive is nearly twice the size for the same capacity \(\epsilon\)f an ordinary hive.
It has no shell, or outer case, but employs the well -known principle of closed - end frames and panels to enclose the brood-nest the same as the Quinby hive(see HIVES); but instead of having the frames stand on the bottom-board or hang in rabbits on the endboards they hang on a pair of cross-arms bolted to a frame. The outside panel is crowded tightly against the set of frames by means of a wedge between the panel and a rod passing through opposite holes as shown.
A bee-space between the frames and super is formed by laying strips of wood \(\pm\) inch thick upon the top of the frames. The comb-honey super employs precisely the same principle of slatted dividers between the sections, and, in general, is constructed on the same general lines as the brood chamber.
These dividers are used only during the swarming or honey-producing season. At the end of that time they are removed. In cool or cold weather they would be a positive detriment.
The remarkable claim is made that bees never cluster out in front of a hive having these slatted dividers, no matter how powerful the colony -- at least that has been the experience of those who have tested it.
## 5. Discussion
Many bee-keepers have followed out the idea given on page 417 (Do bees choose a location before swarming?), by locating hives in the forests, in the trees, and such hives have in many cases been quickly accepted and appropriated. We are indebted to the late Mr. John II. Martin for first suggesting to us the idea. Hives left standing on the ground in the apary have many times been selected by swarms, and, if correct, the bees, in such cases, often come out of the parent colony, and go directly to these hives without clustering at all.
One of our bee-keepers in California, by trading and otherwise, had secured over a dozen empty hives. Having no immediate use for them he packed them up in a couple of tiers, about six high each. Each hive contained four or five combs, spaced so as to prevent the ravages of the moth-miller. One day, by accident he discovered some bees going into one of these empty hives. On examination he found that a swarm of bees had taken possession. His curiosity being now aroused, he examinedsome of the other empty hives. He kept on until he found six good swarms, each nicely housed, without any effort or expense on his part. In a few days more the remaining hives were filled with absconding swarms. When the swarming season closed he had 17 colonies secured. The point is this : By accident he had stacked up his empty hives intiers, so that they resembled trees in the forest. Having combs in them, and entrances open, they were an inviting place for a passing swarm.
**SWARMING, ARTIFICIAL.** See 1Increase, also Nucleus.
**SWEET CLOVER.** See Cloveri.
**SYRIANS.** See Holy-Land Bees, under Italians.
**SYRUP.** See Feeding.
**TRANSFERRING.** Make all arrangements several days before if possible, so the bees may grow accustomed to the surroundings and be all at work; remember we wish to choose a time when as many bees as possible are in the fields and nicely out of the way. About 10 o'clock a, m, will probably be the best time, if it is a warm, still day. Get all your appliances in readiness, every thing you think you may need, and some other things too, perhaps. You will want a open, they were an inviting place for a passing swarm.
**SYRUP.** See Feeding.
clean. \(\Delta\) great part of this is really women's work; and unless you can persuade your wife or sister, or some good friend among the sex to help, you are not fit to be a bee-keeper. A good smoker will be very handy; but if you have none, make a smoke with some bits of rotten wood in a pan; blow a little in at the entrance of the hive, tip the old hive over backward, and blow in a little more smoke to drive the bees down among the combs; let it stand there, and place the new hive so the entrance is exactly in place of the old one; put a large newspaper in front of the new hive with one edge under the entrance. The bees returning laden with pollen and honey now alight and go into the hive, only to rush out again in display at finding it empty; we therefore want to get one comb in for them, to let them know it is their old home. Move back the old hive a little further, in order to get all round it, and give the bees a little more smoke whenever they seem disposed to be "obstreperous." Some bee-keepers pry off the hive-side and proceed to cut out the combs, with the bees running all over every thing. Of course, this necessarily kills many, to say nothing of the nuisance of having bees crawling over the ground, up your trousers-legs, etc. A better way is to place a small box over the inverted hive, large enough to receive the whole cluster of bees. Now drum on the hive-sides with a couple of sticks or the palms of the hands, until the bees run up into the box above. Nearly all of them can be induced to leave their combs for the box, which should be removed as soon as a majority of the bees have gone up into it, and placed to one side. You can now try off a side of the box hive, having the bees practically out of the way. On a flat board lay each comb or sheet of brood, as rapidly as cut out, and over it the frame into which you are to transfer the comb. With a sharp, keen-edged knife mark out on the comb the size of the frame--that is, its inside dimensions. Remove the frame and cut along the mark, after which slip over the frame. If the comb will not stay securely without any fastening, wind string a couple of times around, and tie. We recommend string in preference to transferring-clasps, transferring-wires, and every thing of that sort, for the reason that the bees will not forget to remove the strings, bit by bit, by the time the comb is fastened. Rubber bands are said to be applied more quickly than strings. I proceed thus until you have used up all the brood and _good_ comb, as it does not pay, at present prices of foundation, to use small pieces. All such should be put into the solar wax-extractor. See Wax. Pieces of comb containing brood _can_ be fitted into the frames; but somehow we would manage to secure all the brood possible inside of the frame in one large piece; whereas little scraps that may be left had better be consigned to the solar wax-extractor. After all good combs are transferred, any remain
Figure 1: druming bees up into the empty box.
## 6 Transferring.
In transferring it makes no difference which side up the brood-conbs are placed; turn them horizontally from their original position, or completely upside down, as you find most convenient.
Several inquire if we would advise then to transfer bees in the months of June, July, August, etc. We really do not see how to answer such a question without knowing the persons. Among our neighbors are those who would work so carefully as to be almost sure to succeed; and, again, others who would be almost sure to fail. We are inclined to think those who make these inquiries would be quite apt to fail, for careful people would go to work without asking questions, and do it at _any_ season if they were sufficiently desirous Bees _can_ be transferred any month in the year. When done in June or July, we need an extractor to throw out the honey from the heaviest coabs, before fastening then into frames. Spring, or, more exactly, the time of fruit-bloom, is decidedly the best time, because there are then fewer bees and less honey, as a general thing, than at other times. Hees fix up the combs better when honey enough is being gathered to induce wax secretion to some extent, and the period of fruit-blossoming seems to secure all the above advantages more fully than any other season.
We recommend the time of fruit-bloom, because then the bees usually get honey enough to prevent robbing. Should it be necessary to do it a little later, say between fruit-bloom and clover, use the mosquito-bar folding tent described under Robbing.
Bring the bee-tent and all other necessary tools for transferring, and stand them near
Figure 4: box of bees placed in front of the entrance of the HIV.
Figure 3: Removing one of the sides of the box hives.
the old box hive. Drum the bees into a box as previously described. With a cold-chisel cut the nails so that one side can be removed. After the side is taken off, arrange every thing as compactly as possible. This done, step inside the tent, grasp the intersections and "spread " yourself, as it were, over your work.
The operator inside has the old hive from which be is transferring, together with the new hive and all necessary fixtures for holding the combs in the frames. Besides these he has a saw, chisel, thin-bladed knife, smoker, bee-brush, a large shallow drip-pan to catch drippings of honey, and clean wired frames. To make his work as easy as possible, he sits on a tool-box.
In case he wants transferring, suggested to Mr. James Heldon a new way that will commend itself especially to beginners who dread stings and the "awful sticky " job. Foundation is now so cheap, and combs built from it so much superior to those built naturally, while the combs in box hives are almost universally cooked, we believe our readers will, on the whole, do better to follow the Heldon short method. Indeed, whenever we have occasion to transfer we use it exclusively.