BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Footnote 1: Before inventing the movable-cemb hire, I obviated, as far as possible, the evils of after-swarming, by the following plan: the second swarm, as soon as hard, was placed on the top of the parent-stock, or so, that the extranees to the old and new colonies would be near together, and face the same way. If a third swarm issued, it was added, at least, to the second swarm, by placing the hire or box containing that swarm, on a sheet, and shaking out the third swarm before its entrance. In three or four dayssufficient time being given for the young queens to become Impergratedthe bees in the after-swarm were added, in the same way, to the parent-stock. One queen would quickly kill the other, and the next morning, the eagoltoed swarms being on a familiar spot, would work as well as though they had never been separated. The ecomb which they had built in the new hive was used in the spare honey-boxed.
3. Another very serious objection to natural swarming, as practiced with the common hives, is, that it furnishes no facilities for making vigorous stocks of late and small swarms. The time and money devoted to feeding small colonies are usually wasted; as the larger portion of them never survive the Winter, and most of those that do, are so enefebled as to be of little value. If they escape being robbed by stronger stoeks, or destroyed by the moth, they seldom recruit in season to swarm, and often, unless the feeding is repeated a second season, they perish at last. Doubtless, many of my readers, from their own experience, can indorse every word of these remarks; having found the attempt to multiply colonies, by nursing and feeding small swarms in the common hives, usually attended with nothing but loss and vexation. The more of such stocks a man has, the poorer he is; for by their weakness, they constantly tempt his strong swarms to evil courses; until at last, they prefer, as far as they can, to live by stealing, rather than by habits of honest industry; and even if the feeble colonies escape being plundered, they often become nurseries for raising a supply of moths, to infest his Apary.
Suitable directions are furnished, in the chapter upon Feeding Hees, for building up the smallest after-swarms into vigorous stoeks, and for strengthening such colonies as are feeble in the Spring.
4. As both the parent-stoeks and the after-swarms very frequently lose their young quocens after swarming, a hive by which this misfortune can be easily remedied, will be of great service to those who practice natural swarming. An intelligent bee-keeper once assured me that he should use one movable-comb hive in his Apary, for this purpose, at least, even if it had no merit in other respects.
5. In the common hives, but little can be done to dislodge the bee-moth, when it has gained the ascendency; whereas, in mine, it can be easily extirpated. (See remarks on the Bee-Moth.)
6. In the common hives, it is difficult to remove an old queen when her fertility is impaired; whereas, in mine, it can easily be done; and an Apitarian may always have queens in the full vigor of their reproductive powers.
Intelligent Apiarians will see, from these remarks, that with movable-comb hives, natural swarming can be carried on with greater certainty than ever before, many of the perplexing discouragements under which they have hitherto prosecuted it, being effectually remedied.
be lost. If many colonies are kept, a competent person should always be on hand, in the height of the season, to attend to the bees. Even the Sabbath cannot be observed as a day of rest ; as the bee-keeper is often compelled to spend it in hard work among his bees. Although it is as proper for him to hive his bees on that day, as it is to take care of his other stock, still, the liability to such labor deters many from Apiarian pursuits. Many merchants, mechanics, and professional men, who wish to keep bees, cannot superintend them during the swarming-season ; and are thus often kept from a pursuit intensely fascinating to an inquiring mind.* No man who spends some of his leisure in studying the wonderful intistients of bees, will ever complain that he can find nothing to fill up his time, out of the range of his business or the gratification of his appetites. Bees may be kept with great advantage, even in large cities, and those who are debarred from rural pursuits may still listen to their soothing hum, and harvest annually their delicious nectar. If the Apiarian could always be at homo during the swarming-season, it would still be ofentimes very inconvenient for him to attend to his bees. The farmer, for instance, may be interrupted in the business of hay-making, by the cry that his bees are swarming; and by the time he has hired them, perhaps a shower comes up, and hits 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 embarrassments 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. I have seen the bee-master, under such circumstances, so perplexed and exhausted as to be almost ready to wish he had never seen a bec.
3. The multiplying of bees by natural swarming, must, in our country, almost entirely prevent the establishment of large Apararies.
The swarming season is, with most bee-keepers, the busiest part of the year, and if they keep a large number of swarming-hives, they must devote nearly all their time, for a number of weeks, to their supervision; and at a season when labor commands the highest price, they may also be obliged to hire additional assistance.
To keep a few colonies in swarming-hives, often costs more than they are worth, while the supervision of a large number can be made profitable, only by those who can devote nearly all the Summer months to their bees. The number of such persons, in this country, must be very small; and hence there are few who have succeeded in making bee-keeping anything more than a subordinate pursuit.
4. A serious objection to natural swarming, is the discouraging fact that bees often refuse to swarm at all; thus the Apiarian finds it impossible to multiply his colonies with any certainty or rapidity, even although he may be favorably situated for conducting bee-culture on an extensive scale.
Many of the most careful bee-keepers have fewer stocks than they had years ago, although they have sought to increase them to the extent of their power. Few intelligent Aparians believe that there are half as many colonies in our Northern and Middle States, as there were twenty years ago; and most of them would abandon be keeping, if they did not regard it as a source of pleasant recreation, rather than of pecuninary profit; while others do not hesitate to say that much more money has, of late years, been spent upon patent hives, than those who have used them have realized from their bees.
It is an easy matter to make calculations on paper* almost as flattering as an imaginary tour to the gold mines of Australia or California. Only purchase a patent beehive, and if it fulfills the promises of its sanguine inventor, a fortune must be realized in a few years; but such are the disappointments resulting from bees refusing to swarm, that if the hive could remedy all other difficulties, it would still fail to answer the reasonable wishes of the experienced Apairian. If every swarm of bees could be made to yield a profit of twenty dollars a year, the bee-keeper could not multiply his stocks, by natural swarming, so as to meet the demand for them; but would be entirely dependent upon the capriees of his bees, or rather upon the natural laws which control their swarming.
Every practical bee-keeper is aware of the uncertainty of natural swarming. Under no circumstances, can it be confidently relied on. While some stocks swarm regularly, and repeatedly, others, equally 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. In some cases, the wings of the old mother are defective, while in others, she seems to prefer the riches of the old hive, to the risks attending the formation of a new colony. It frequently happens that, when all the preparations have been made for swarming, the weather proves so unpropositions 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. From these and other causes, which my limits will not permit me to notice, it has hitherto been found impossible, in the uncertain climate of our Northern States, for any but the most experienced and energetic Apiarians, to multiply colonies very rapidly by natural swarming.
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 their colonies.1
Footnote 1: Dr. Seudamore quotes Columbia, who, about the middle of the first century of the Christian Era, wrote twelve books on husbandry"De re reutice"asThe ancient methods of artificial increase appear to have met with little success; but towards the close of the last century, a new interest was awakened on the subject, by the discovery of Schirach, a German clergyman, of the fact, previously known to a few, that bees are able to rear a queen from worker-brood. For want, however, of an acquaintance with some important principles in the economy of bees, his efforts met with but slender encouragement.
Huber, after his splendid discoveries in the physiology of the bee, felt the need of some way of multiplying colonies, more reliable than that of natural swarming. His live consisted of twelve frames, each an inch and a quarter in width, which were connected together by hinges, so that any one could be opened or shut at pleasure, like the leaves of a book. He recommends forming artificial swarms, by dividing one of these hives, and adding six empty frames to each half. After using his hive for years, I found that it could be made serviceable only by an adroit and fearless Apairian. The bees fasten the frames with their propolis, so that they cannot easily be opened, without jarring the combs, and exciting their anger; or shut, without constant danger of crushing them. Huber no-where speaks of having multiplied colonies extensively by such hives, and although they have been in use more than sixty years, they have never been successfully employed for such a purpose. If he had contrived a plan for giving his frames the requisite play, by suspending them on giving directions for making artificial swarms. Although he taught how to furnish a queen to a destitrate colony, and how to transfer brood-comb, with mature boss, from a strong stock to a weak one, he does not appear to have formed entirely new colonies by any artificial process. His treatise on bees-keeping shows not only that he was well acquainted with previous writers on the subject, but that he was also a successful practical Aplarian. Its precepts, with but few exceptions, are truly adminsible, and poove that in his time be-keeping, with the masses, must have been far in advance of what it now is.
ralbets, instead of folding them together like the leaves of a book, he would have left much less room for subsequent improvements.
" Dividing-hives," of various kinds, have been used in this country. The principle seems to have all the elements of success ; and it was only after protracted experiments, that I was able to ascertain that, however modified, such hives are all practically worthless for purposes of artificial swarming.
It is one of the laws of the hive, that bees which have no mature queen, seldom build any cells except such as are designed merely for storing honey, and are too _large_ for the rearing of _workers_. Until my perusal of Mr. Wagner's manuscript translation of Dzierzon, I thought that I was the only observer who had noticed the bearing of this remarkable fact on artificial swarming. It may, at first, seem unaccountable 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_," or unnatural 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 hatched.
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. Even if the Apiarian succeeds in dividing a colony, so that the queen-less part proceeds to supply her loss, if it has bees enough to build sufficient new comb to make it of any value, it will build such as is designed only for storing honey ; using, ethically for breeding purposes, the half of the hive containing the old comb. The next year, if this hive is divided,one half will contain nearly all the brood, while the other, having most of its combs fit only for storing honey, or raising drones, will be a complete failure.
Even with a Huber-hive, the plan of multiplying colonies by dividing a 'full hive into two parts, and adding an empty half to each, will be found to require a degree of skill and knowledge, far in advance of what can be expected of ordinary bee-keepers. The same remarks are substantially true of all frame or bar-hives which do not allow sufficient play between the parts to which the combs are attached; for, as the bees usually build their combs slightly waving, and some thicker than others, nearly insuperable practical difficulties will be found in making the necessary interchanges of comb, in such hives.
The attempt to multiply colonies by the common dividing-hives, will be found far more laborious and uncertain than by natural swarming. Every practical bee-keeper who has given it a fair trial, has been glad to abandon it, and return to the old-fashioned way.
Some Apairians have attempted to multiply their colonies, by removing, when thousands of its inmates are ranging the fields, a strong stock to a new stand, and setting in its place an empty hive, with a piece of brood-comb, suitable for raising a queen. This method is still worse than the one just described. One half of the dividing-hive was filled with breeding comb, while this empty hive having next to none, all that is built before the queen hatches, will be of a size unsuitable for rearing workers. The queenless part of the dividing-hive might also have contained a young queen almost mature, so that the building of large combs would have quickly ceased; for as soon as the young queen hatches, the bees commence building worker-combs.* When a new colony is formed by dividing the old hive, the queenless part has thousands of cells filled with brood and eggs, and young bees will be hatching for at least three weeks : by this time, the young queen will ordinarily be laying eggs, so that there will be an interval of not more than three weeks, during which the colony will receive no accessions. But when a new swarm is formed, in the way above described, not an egg will be laid for nearly three weeks, and not a bee hatched for nearly six. During all this time, the colony will rapidly decrease ;* and by the time the progeny of the young queen begins to mature, the new hive will have so few bees, that it would seldom be of any value, even if its combs were of the best construction.
After thoroughly testing this last plan of artificial swarming, I have found that it has not the least practical value ; and as this is the method which Apairians have usually tried, it is not strange that hitherto, they have almost unanimously condemned artificial swarming.
Another method of artificial swarming has been zealously'advocated, which, seeming to require the smallest amount of labor or skill, would be everywhere practiced, if it could only be made effectual. A number of hives are to be connected by holes, so as to allow the bees to travel from any one to all the others. The bees, on this plan, are to _colonize themselves_, and it is asserted that in due time,a single swarm, of its own accord, will form a large number of independent families, each possessing its own queen, and all living in perfect harmony.
This method, so fascinating in theory, though repeatedly tried with various ingenious modifications, has in every instance proved an entire failure. If the bees are allowed to pass from one live to another, they will confine their breeding operations mostly to a single apartment, if it is of the ordinary size, and will use the others chiefly for storing honey. This is almost invariably the case, if the additional room is given by _collateral_ or side boxes, as the queen seldom enters such apartments for the purpose of breeding; if, however, the new live is directly _belove_ that in which the swarm was first lodged, and the connections are suitable, she will be almost certain to descend and lay her eggs in the new combs, as soon as they are begun by the bees. The _upper_ hive being now almost entirely abandoned by her, the bees fill the cells with honey, as fast as the brood is hatched, their instinct impelling them to keep their stores of honey, if possible, above the breeding-cells. So long as bees have an abundance of room _belove_ 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. In none of these cases, however, do they ever form independent colonies, _if left to themselves._
The skillful Apiarian may, doubtless, _compel_ his bees to rear an artificial colony, by separating from the main hive, by a slide, an apartment that happens to contain brood; but unless his hives admit of thorough inspection, as he can never know their exact condition, he will be far more likely to fail than to succeed. This plausible theory, therefore, to be reduced to even an empirical and precarious practice, requires more skill, care, labor, and time, than are necessary to manage the ordinary swarming-hives.
The failure, on the part of experienced, as well as inexperienced Apararians, of so many attempts to increase colonies by artificial means, has led many to advocate the general use of non-swarming hives. In such hives, very large harvests of honey are often obtained from strong stocks of bees; but it is evident that if the formation of new colonies were generally discouraged, the insect would soon be exterminated.
Although the movable-comb hive may be made more effectually to prevent swarming than any with which I am acquainted, still there are some objections to the non-swarming plan which cannot be removed. To say nothing of its preventing the increase of stocks, bees usually work with diminished vigor, after they have been kept in a non-swarming hive for several seasons. This will be obvious to any one who will compare the super-abounding energy of a new swarm, with the more sluggish working of even a much stronger non-swarming stock.
An old queen, whose fertility has become impaired, can be easily caught and removed, in the movable-comb hive; but when hives are used in which this cannot be done, the Apiary will contain queens that have passed their prime, and some which may die when there are no eggs from which others can be reared.
On no subject has the author of this work experimented more fully than on that of Artificial Swarming; and those bee-keepers to whom this chapter may, at first, seem needlessly diffuse, will find that it contains many important principles, which, in any other connection, would probably have required even more fullness of detail.
Before detailing the various methods of Artificial Swarming which may be practiced in the movable-combhives, I shall describe one which may be used with almost any hive, by those who have sufficient confidence to manage bees.
About the season of natural swarming, what I shall call a _forced swarm_, may be obtained from a populous stock,* by the following process. Choose that part of a pleasant day, when many bees are abroad, and if any are clustered on the bottom-board or outside of the hive, puff among them a few whiffs of smoke--that from spunk is best--so as to drive them up among the combs. The bees will go up more readily if the hive is tipped back, or elevated by small wedges, about one-quarter of an inch above the bottom-board. Have in readiness a box--which Isshall call the _?oreing-box_--whose diameter is about the same with that of the hive from which you intend to drive the swarm. Lift the hive from its bottom-board without the slightest jar, turn it over, and carefully carry it off about a rod, as bees, if disturbed, are much more inclined to be peaceable, when removed a short distance from their familiar stand. If the hive is gently placed upside down on the ground, scarcely a bee will fly out, and there will be little danger of being stung. The timid and inexperienced should protect themselves with a bee-dress, and may gently sprinkle the bees with sugar-water, or blow more smoke among them, as soon as the hive is inverted. After placing it on the ground, the forcing-box must be put over it, and every opening between it and the hive, from which a bee might escape+, should be stopped with paper, or any convenient material. The forcing-box, if smooth inside,should have slats fastened one-third of the distance from the top, to aid the bees in clustering.
As soon as the Apairan has confined the bees, he should place an empty hive--which I shall call _the decoy-hive--_ upon their old stand, which those returning from the fields may enter, instead of dispersing to other hives, to meet, perhaps, with a most ungracious reception. As a general rule, however, a bee with a load of honey or bee-bread, after the extent of his resources is ascertained, is pretty sure to be welcomed by any hive to which he may carry his treasure; while a poverty-stricken unfortunate that presumes to claim their hospitality is, usually, at once destroyed. The one meets with as flattering a reception as a wealthy gentleman proposing to take up his abode in a country village, while the other is as much an object of dislike as a poor man, who bids fair to become a public charge.
To return to our imprisoned bees: their'hive should be beaten smartly with the palms of the hands, or two small rods, on the sides to which the combs are attached, so as to run no risk of loosening* them. These "rapings," although not of a very " spiritual" character, produce, nevertheless, a decided effect upon the bees. Their first impulse, if no smoke were used, would be to sally out, and wreak their vengeance on those who thus rudely assail their honied dome; but as soon as they inhale its fumes, and feel the terrible concussions of their once stable abode, a sudden fear that they are to be driven from their treures, takes possession of them. Determined to prepare for this unceremonious writ of ejection, by carrying off what they can, each bee begins to lay in a supply, and in about five minutes, all are filled to their utmost capacity. A prodigious humming is now heard, as they begin to mount into the upper box; and in about fifteen minutes from the time the rapping began--if it has been continued with but slight intermissions--the mass of the bees, with their queen, will hang clustered in the forcing-box, like any natural swarm, and may, at the proper time, be readily shaken out, on a sheet, in front of their intended hive.