BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The following remarkable instance came under our observation, in Matamova, Mexico : \(\Lambda\) second \(\times\) swarm deserting its abode the _second_ day after being hived, settled upon a tree. On examining the abandoned live, _free_ young queenswere found lying dead on its bottom-board. The swarm was returned, and, the next morning, two more dead queens were found. As the colony afterwards prospered, _eight_ queens, at least, must have left the parent-colony in a single swarm!
Young queens, whose ovaries are not burdened with eggs, are much quicker on the wing than old ones, and frequently fly much farther from the parent-stoek before they alight.
The bee-keepers of old, who were not acquainted with the habits of bees, noticing that primary-swarms were more populous than after-swarms, used to brimstone (**276**) the old colony which had swarmed, and its after-swarm, considering the first swarm as the best of the three; but this apparent superiority was often of short duration, for the first swarm is nearly always accompanied by the old queen. We know better now, since we consider the age of the queen as one of the qualities of a colony.
**44S**. After-swarms are much more prone to abscond or leave, after living, than primary-swarms. It is probably owing to the fact that the young queen has to go out for her bridal trip (**121**), and the bees sometimes leave with her. A comb of unsealed brood (**166**) given them will usually prevent this. An absconding swarm often leaves without settling.
**449**. After the departure of the second swarm, the oldest remaining queen leaves her cell; and if another swarm is to come forth, piping will still be heard; and so before the issue of each swarm after the first. It will sometimes be heard for a short time after the issue of the second swarm, even when the bees do not intend to swarm again. The third swarm usually leaves the hive on the second or third day after the second swarm, and the others, at intervals of about a day. We once had five swarms from one stoek, in less than two weeks. In warm latitudes, more than twice this number of swarms have been known to issue, in one season, from a single colony.
After-swarms seriously reduce the strength of the parent-stock; since by the time they issue, nearly all the brood left by the old queen has hatehed, and no more eggs can be laid until all swarming is over. If, after swarming, the weather suddenly becomes ehilly, and the hive is thin, or the Apiarist continues the ventilation which was needed only for a crowded colony, the remaining bees being unable to maintain the requisite heat, great numbers of the brood may perish.
Prevention of Natural Swarming.
**.450**. The prevention of natural swarming, in the present state of bee-keeping, is an important item, for several reasons.
_1st,_ Bee-keeping has so spread in the last few years, that many bee-keepers are possessors of as many colonies as they desire to keep. Most Apiarists, especially farmers, keep bees only for the honey, and as it is impossible to produce both an increase of stuck, and a large yield of honey in average seasons, they prefer the production of honey to that of swarms.
_2nd,_ Another objetion to natural swarming arises from the disheartening fact, that bees are liable to swarm so often, as to destroy the value of both the parent-stoek. and its after-swarms. Experienced bee-keepers obviate this difficulty by making one good colony out of two second swarms. and returning to the parent-stock all swarms after the second, and even this if the season is far advanced. Such operations often consume more time than they are worth.
_3d_. The bees may be located in a town, near a publie thoroughfare where people pass constantly, and aceidents may take place; or perhaps near the winds where the swarm would cluster on such high limbs that it would be difficult or impossible to hive them.
_3th,_ It is very troublesome to have to watch the bees for weeks, or to have them swarm at unexpected or unwelcome times, when the family is away, or at dinner, or while the owner is engaged with his business, for many bee-keepers are also lawyers, doctors or merchants, occupied in daily labors,which require a definite part of their time. The farmer may be interrupted in the business of hay-making, by the cry that his bees are swarming; and by the time he has lived them, perhaps a shower comes up, and his hay is injured more than the swarm is worth. Thus the keeping of a few bees, instead of being a source of profit, may prove an expensive luxury; while in a large apiary, the enbarrassments are often seriously increased. If, after a succession of days unfavorable for swarming, the weather becomes pleasant, it often happens that several swarms rise at once, and cluster together; and not unfrequently, in the noise and confusion, other swarms fly off, and are lost. We have seen the bee-master, under such circumstances, so perplexed and exhausted as to be almost ready to wish he had never seen a bee.
**451**. Mr. J. F. Racine, of Wallen, Allen Co., Indiana, had 505 natural swarms from 165 colonies in the summer of 1883. Sixty-one swarms came out on the 3d of July. We will let him tell the story in his own way:
"In the morning, as soon as the watchword had.been given for the first swarm, there was no rest. Primary, secondary, and after-swarms, all passed under the same limb of the same tree. The bees were no sooner shaken in a basket, and emptied in front of a hive, than there was another cluster gathered, in the same spot. Some swarms had no queen, while others had 3, 4, and even 5 of them. Some were young queens, some were old queens. When we could find a queen, we eaged her ( 536 ) to preserve her from being balled ( 538 ). The sixty-one swarms were hived in 20 hives, and surplus cases were given them at once. A man, who had come with 5 hives to buy swarms, said that he had never seen the like, neither had I, although I have kept bees for 57 years. And the best of it is, I did not want any swarms at all that season."
**452**. 5th. It is admitted, by all progressive people, that man can achieve a great deal by artificial selection and cultivation of plants and animals. The same selection is advisable in the reproduction of the honey-bee, and an increase from selected colonies or selected races, cannot always be had by natural swarming. In this, artificial swarming is much better, and gives much more satisfactory results whenever an increase is desirable.
**153**. _6th._ The numerous swarms lost every year, is a strong argument against natural swarming.
An eminent \(\Lambda\)piarist has estimated that, taking into aeeount all who keep bees, one-fourth of the best swarms are lost every season. While some bee-keepers seldom lose a swarm, the majority suffer serious losses by the flight of their bees to the woods; and it is next to impossible, even for the most careful, to prevent such oeeurrenes, if their bees are allowed to swarm.
Apiarists will then recognize that it is very important to follow a method, which will nearly, if not altogether, prevent natural swarming. But in order to prevent it, we must know the causes of it.
**154**. Natural swarming is a natural impulse in bees. Yet, it can be prevented, for it is always caused by uneasiness, as we will show in the next paragraph, or by an abnormal condition of the colony. It is caused:
_1st._ In the majority of instances, by the want of room in the conbs. By want of room, we do not mean want of empty space in the hive, but want of empty conb for the queen to deposit her eggs, or for the workers to deposit their honey. So long as bees have an abundance of empty space below their main hive, they very seldom swarm; but if it is on the _sides_ of their hive, or _above_ them, they often swarm rather than take possession of it.
This happens, not only in the Southern latitudes, where the swarming instinet is so powerful, but even in our Northern or Middle States. This fact is corroborated by Sinnins. whose non-swarming system is based on the idea of keeping "open space and unfinished conbs at the front, or adjoining the entrance." (Rottingdean, England, 18S6.) Persons who are unaequainted with the details of bee-keeping have no idea how suddenly the honey harvest comes, and how rapidly the eonbs can be filled, when it once begins. Strong colonies which were almost destitute, just at the opening of the crop, owing to the large amount of brood they were raising, have been known to harvest twenty pounds, and more, in one day. When bees are thus gathering large quantities of honey, and the eonbs are becoming crowded, so that the eells, from which the young bees hateh, are filled with honey as fast as they are vacated, they feel the necessity of enigrating, especially as the genstant hatehing workers add daily to their large population. The building of additional combs, by a part of the bees, is sometimes insufficient to keep them from making preparations for swarming, as it does not give employment to all. The reader must remember that in a good colony, at this season, there are between 50,000 and 100,000 bees, according to the laying capacity of the queen and the size of the breeding-room. There is also an additional increase over mortality of perhaps 2,000 bees daily. In spite of the admirable order of these wonderful little insects, there cannot help be more or less crowding, unless there is ample room in the combs.
**4.55**. If some of the bees decide that they are too crowded, queen-cells are raised (**10:1**) and the e colony sets what \(\Lambda\)pianrists call the "_swarming_\(ferer\)._" It is a very appropriate name, indeed, since'the so-called fever is cured only by swarming. In some extraordinary seasons, after this "swarming fever" has taken possession of their little brains; no amount of room given, even by dividing (**170**) will prevent them from executing their purpose; unless the weather and the honey crop become unfavorable. We have repeatedly, in such seasons, divided a colony into several nuelei (**520**) without avail, each nueleus swarming in spite of its weakness.
**156**. _2d_. The heat of the Summer sun, which alone would not cause them to swarm, hastens their preparations, when the bees are disposed to emigrate.
**457**. _3d_. The hatehing of a great number of drones due to an excess of drone-comb (**22:1**) in the brood chamber, in which the queen has deposited \(\varepsilon_{\geq 5}\)s,\(-\)is also an ineitation to the "swarming fever." These big, barly, noisy fellows help to make the already crowded hive quite uncomfortable. This is why a great many bee-keepers of the old school noticed that lives which raise the most drones cast the greatest number of swarms. But they incorrectly concluded that the drones were beneficial.
**158**. _4th._ An improperly ventilated hive (**333**), or surplus arrangement, strongly induces natural swarming. We have seen ignorant bee-keepers, owners of box-hives, wonder why their bees swarmed and did not work in the surplus honey vegetable. In order to ventilate the honey receptacle, the bees have to form a line (**363**) from the outside of the hive through the thickly covered conbs, and force in air enough to enable them to breathe and live there.
Under such circumstances, hordes of useless consumers often blacken, for months, the outside of the hives, to the great loss of their disappointed owners.
**459**. _1st._ It results from the above that _the principal condition for the prevention of natural swarming is, a sufficient amount of multiple comb,_ and this empty comb must be given in an easily accessible place near and above the brood.
The giving of comb fonndation (**674**) instead of empty conbs, will be sufficient if the crop is not flowinor too fast. But in a very good season, if the harvesting workers bring the honey faster than the young bees can stretch the fonndation into comb, it will not be sufficient.
**160**. If the breeding story is full and the surplus arrangement is placed above with a wooden division or honey-board (**352**) between, the bees will often consider the latter as too remote from their breeding room, especially if the holes which connect the two are few, and ventilation cannot be readily given from one apartment to another.
**461**. _The giving of combs in a filter of easy access, must be attended to, just before the crop begins, or the bees may make preparations which would render all later enlargementsof the hive completely useless, as far as prevention of swarming is concerned. The breeding room must be large enough to accommodate the most prolific queen_ (**155**).
**162**. _2d. The hive must be located where the sun will not strike it directly_ in the hottest hours of the day. It can easily be sheltered artificially with a roof, if there is no shrubbery around it (**369**).
**163**. _3d. The drone-comb must be carefully removed,_ in Spring, as far as possible, _and replaced by worker-comb_ (**675**). It is impossible to remove every cell of drone-comb, but a few drones will not hurt. It is the excess, the breeding of thousands of drones which is objectionable, and an incentive to swarming. The removal of drone-comb is highly advisable for other reasons (**512**).
**164**. _4th._ The hive should be thoroughly ventilated, so that the bees will find themselves comfortable in it.
**165**. This system, which gives the smallest possible number of swarms, and the largest possible amount of surplus-honey, was inaugrated by us, years ago, and has been adopted on both continents. Mr. Cowan, the worthy editor of the _British Bee-Journal,_ says of it, page 148, April, 1886, "Hives managed in this way, will give the maximum of honey with the least amount of labor."
If the above directions are followed, the natural swarms will not exceed three to five per cent. These swarms will be very large\(-\)Mr. DeLayens once had a swarm weighing 111/3 lbs.\(-\)and after-swarms will be scarce. The few hives that swarm are those which, having old queens, attempt to replace them during the swarming season (**149**), or those whose queens die while the crop is abundant.
In the first ease, one or more young queens being raised in the hive, it often happens that the old queen tries to destroy them; the bees prevent her (**11**-**4**), and swarming is the result. The same reason _ma!!_ cause swarming in a strong colony, in which a queen has been introduced by the Apiarist, during a good yield of honey. Perhaps the bees accept her "_under protest,"_ and soon begin raising queen-cells to replace her, but the abundant honey harvest causes them to change their preparations, and they swarm with this introduced queen. A hive which has been made queenless during the honey crop, may swarm for the same reasons as soon as the young queens are old enough.
**166.** The prevention of natural swarming, when combinoney is raised in sections (**722**), is not so successful, because the Apiarist cannot furnish his bees with empty combs. But very good results can be obtained, by following as nearly as possible all the directions above given.
**167**. As the queen cannot get through an opening 5-32 of an inch high\(-\)which will just pass a loaded worker, if the entrance to the hive be contracted to this dimension, she will not be able to leave with a swarm.
This is done with drone or queen-traps, perforated zinc, entrance-blocks, and other fixtures (**191**).
This method of preventing swarming requires great accuracy of measurement, for a very trifling deviation from the dimensions given will either shut out the loaded workers, or let out the queen. It should be used only to imprison old queens; for young ones, if confined to the hive, cannot be impregnated (**120**). These fixtures, if firmly fastened, will exclude mice from the hive in the Winter. When used to prevent all swarming, it will be necessary to adjust then a little after sunrise and remove them before sunset, to take out, or allow the bees to carry out any drones that have died.
We have seen colonies kill their queen, and raise another, because she laid thus been unable to follow the swarm, hence,these appliances will do only in small apiaries, where beekeepers can examine each colony daily; and even there, we would not advise their constant use.
Mr. Langstroth had formerly devised a non-swarmer block, with a metallic slide, to prevent the escape of the queen. This was abandoned, because it annoyed the bees and interfered with ventilation, as all such arrangements do.
It would be a useful implement to reduce the entrance in winter.
Mr. C. C. Miller succeeds in producing large crops, and almost entirely preventing the issue of swarms, but the manipulations to which he resorts are so frequent as to make the praetiee unadvisable for the average bee-keeper. The specialist who wishes to raise comb honey and avoid swarming had best secure the book "Forty Years Among the Bees" and study it carefully.
**16S**. After-swarms have been prevented from issuing, by a method invented by Jas. Heddon. The Heddon method consists in placing the first swarm side by side with the parent hive, and one week after the issue of the swarm, or just previous to the expected departure of the second swarm, removing the parent hive to a new location, thus giving all its old bees to the first swarm. This is virtually preventing a natural issue by a forced issue, but making the first swarm strong, at the expense of the mother colony. The sole objection to this method is that it does away only with the annoy-face of catching the swarm, and leaves the parent colony much weakened.
**16S**_bis_. Some Apiarists who raise comb honey with small hives, such as the eight-frame Langstroth or dovetailed hive, have adopted a method similar to the one just mentioned and much more satisfactory. The new swarm, when hived, is put on the stand of the old colony and this one is removed to a new spot. The supers on the old colony are also removed and given to the swarm, with a queen-exeluder (**732**) between the brood apartment and the upper story. This virtually gives the entire working force and the partly filled honey eases to the swarm, which henceforth becomes the producing colony from which surplus may be expected. The old colony thus depleted of its active bees and stores, barely replenishes itself for the end of the season. Sometimes it happens that there are not even bees enough left in the old hive to take care of the brood, since all the active bees have gone to the old stand. In such a ease, the Apiarist may place the old colony on the stand of a third hive which is of insufficient strength either to produce a crop of honey or to swarm. The active bees of this colony are thus given to the colony that swarmed and the third colony is itself removed to another "#"!.
This method usually does entirely away with secondary swarming. It is recommended by W. Z. Hutehinson, editor of the _Bee-Kc-irre's Reticae_, and author of "Advanced Bee-Culture."
The increase of colonies may be kept down within reasonable limits by returning all after-swarms that have issued from the hives to the parent colonies. The swarm is lived in any any kind of box and allowed to remain twenty-four to forty-eight hours. At the end of that time it is shaken in front of the hive from which it has issued. The bees willingly re-enter their former home and rarely issue again. This method of prevention of increase is sometimes successful even with primary swarms, if the conditions are otherwise favorable to their comfort. It is not a prevention of swarming, but a prevention of increase in spite of natural swarming.
**469.** Every practeial bee-keeper is aware of the uncertainty of natural swarming. Under no circumstances can it be confidently relied on. While some colonies swarm repeatedly, others, apparently as strong in numbers, and rich in stores, refuse to swarm, even in seasons in all respects highly propitious. Such colonies, on examination, will often be found to have taken no steps for raising young queens. Besides, it frequently happens that, when all the preparations have been made for swarming, the weather proves so inelement that the young queens approach maturity before the old ones can leave, and are all destroyed. Under such circumstances, swarming, for that season, is almost certain to be prevented. The young queens are also sometimes destroyed, because of some sudden, and perhaps only temporary, suspension of the honey-harvest; for bees seldom colonize, even if all their preparations are. completed, unless the blossoms are yielding an abundant supply of honey.
The numerous perplexities pertaining to natural swarming, have, for ages, directed the attention of cultivators to the importance of devising some more reliable method for increasing the number of their colonies.
Dr. Seudamore quotes Columbia as giving directions for making artificial swarms. Although he taught how to furnish a queen to a destitute colony, and how to transfer brood-comb, with maturing bees, from a strong stoek to a weak one, he does not appear to have formed entirely new colonies by any artificial process. His treatise on bee-keeping shows not only that he was well acquainted with previous writers on the subjet, but that he was also a sueessful practeal Apiarist. Its precepts, with but few exceptions, are truly admirable, and prove that in his time bee-keeping, with the masses, must have been far in advance of what it was fifty years ago.
We have spoken of the bar-hive (332) as at least two hundred years old. From "A Journey into Greece, by George Wheeler, Esgl.," made in 1675-6, it appears that it was, at that time, in common use there, and, probably, even then an old invention; he described its uses in forming artificial swarms, and removing spare honey. As the new swarms were made by dividing the conbs between two hives, and no mention is made of giving the queenless one a royal cell, those old observers were probably acquainted with the fact that they could rear one from the worker-broad. Huber says:-"Monticelli, a Neapolitan Professor, claims that the plan of artificial swarming was borrowed from Favignana, and that the practice is so ancient that even the Latin names are preserved by the inhabitants in their procedure."
**170**. Huber, after his splenid discoveries in the physiology of the bee, feit the need of some way of multiplying colonies, more reliable than that of natural swarming. He recommends forming artificial swarms, by dividing one of the hives, and adding six empty frames to each half.
"Dividing-hives" (278-279) of various kinds have been used in this country. The principle seems to have all the elements of success; but it was ascertained that, however modified, such lives are all practically worthless for purposes of artificial increase.
It is one of the laws of the hive, that _bees which have no unique queen, seldom build any cells except such as are designed merely for storing honey, and are too large for the rewrinity of workers_ (225).
**171**. Messers, Langstroth and Dzierzon were the first observers who had noticed the bearing of this remarkable faet on artificial increases. It may, at first, seem unaceountable that bees should build only comb unfit for breeding, when
their young queen will so soon require worker-cells for her eggs; but it must be borne in mind that at such times they are in an "_abnormal_" condition. In a state of nature, they seldom swarm until their hive is full of comb; or if they do, their numbers are so reduced that they are rarely able to resume comb-building, until the young queen has hatehed.
The determination of bees having no mature queen, to build comb designed only for storing honey, and unfit for rearing workers, shows very clearly the folly of attempting to multiply colonies by dividing-hives, unless the greater part of the bees are given to the queen, and the greater part of the eonbs to the queenless half, or unless the Apiarist has enough combs already built or sheets of comb foundation, on hand, to fill up the empty space.