The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-07-13
PREVENTION OF swARMs.

PREVENTION OF SWARMS.
Some Valuable Suggestions Concerning the
Management Of Bees.
To obtain the greatest yield of honey.
ordinarily, swarmfng must be con-
trolled to q great extent, although we
often gain in surplus by allowing
strong, powerful colonies to cast .
swarm. A certain amount of space
may be protitably occupied by bees.
but an over supply of bees to said
amount of space is not SO profitable
Hence a division of the swarm is, I
think, more preferable, and no better
division can be made when surplus
honey is in view than to permit the
bees to make it themselves, if at or
near the proper time. But in allowing
such increase line must be drawn. as
any increase except in such cases is q
barrier to honey production. The size
of hive or space for the brood chamber,
as generally adopted by beekeepers, is
about 1900 to 2,4OO cubic inches, and
the surplus department should have
about the same dimensions. A pros
porous colony in the honey season
should occupy this entire space, filling
every crack and crevice to such an ex-
tent only as to admit Of working room,
or. as the saying is, "elbow room"
When this space becomes crowded and
the bees are forced to the outside for
room. loafing in large numbers, clus-
tering on the outside of the hive,
will take place. If this occurs during
the honey flow, it shows that
something is wrong; that room is re-
quired. and I prefer, rather than to add
another story to the hive, to swarm
them naturally if possible, and thus
have them divided into two colonies.
If the above is correct, the reader will
understand what it takes to make
prosperous colony, in proper shape to
secure the best results
In order to prevent all swarms that
may not be desired in most cases it is
only necessary to keep down the con-
struction of queen cells. Swarming
may be very easily foretold from six to
eight days by the construction of said
queen cells. The destruction of these
cells will discourage swarming and in
most cases prohibit it. But in rare ex-
ceptions bees will sometimes persist in
issuing even if queen cells are not
present. especially after frequent an
noyance by removing their cells, from
the fact that their leaving the parent
stock in this condition does not injure
1t. If brood is present. their excuse
for so doing may be deemed reasona-
BILE, but as this will at once check the
process of storing surplus. the point
aimed at, it is necessary that we keep
them together, and the only way We
can make sure thing of it is to take
away their queen. This is never
failing remedy to check swarm
ing at the time. If abundance
of young brood is present in the
hive I can not see that it will do any
particular harm, but as q general
thing this is preventive only for the
present, for if the honey flow continues
there will likely be another effort made
to swarm eight days thereafter. Queen
cells constructed from the brood left
after the removal of the queen. will -
this period be maturing and swarms
may be the result At this stage of
proceedings we have made the best
progress by removing all young queens
or cells and introducing a laying
queen.
Another plan we have used. which
may be equally Is good with those per-
sistent swarmers, is to allow them to
swarm, hive them in q new location,
and strengthen them up ready for oc-
cupying the surplus boxes at once, BY
drawing from either the stock left or
other colonies. II, on the other hand,
we wish to increase our number of
stocks somewhat and at the same time
secure fair crop of honey, we would
manage to have all the stocks Is strong
and as near the swarming point as
possible at the opening of the honey
flow. In fact. it matters not what
particular method of management We
intend to adopt for the season, it is Of
the greatest importance in any case to
have strong stocks at the commence
ment Doubling the number of col
onies is fair increase. This we can
do and at the same time secure fair
crop of honey. and we would do this
by allowing the first swarms to issue.
I think this better than dividing, If
salable surplus honey is the object to-
gether with fair increase.
If we expect to make increase the
sole object We would manage quite
differently. We would work entirely
on the artificial plan of increasing
by dividing. Previous arrangements
should be made in rearing queens 30