§ I. HIVING SWARMS.
THE spring is the best period at which to commence an apiary, and swarming time is a good starting-point for the new bee-keeper. The period known as the swarming season is during the months of May and June. With a very forward stock, and in exceedingly fine weather, bees do occasionally swarm in April. The earlier the swarm the greater is its value. If bees swarm in July they seldom gather sufficient to sustain themselves through the winter, though by careful feeding they may easily be kept alive if hived early in the month.
The cause of a swarm leaving the stock hive is that the population has grown too large for it. Swarming is a provision, of Nature for remedying the inconvenience of overcrowding, and is the method whereby the bees seek for space in which to increase their stores. By putting on "super hives" the required relief may, in many cases, be given to them; but should the multiplication of stocks be desired, the bee-keeper will defer increasing the space until the swarm has issued forth.
In many country districts it is a time-honoured custom for the good folks of the village to commence on such occasions a terrible noise of tanging and ringing with frying-pan and key. This is done with the absurd notion that the bees are charmed with the clangorous din, and may by it be induced to settle as near as possible to the source of such sweet sounds. This is, however, quite a mistake: there are other and better means for the purpose. The practice of ringing was originally adopted for a different and far more sensible object—viz., for the purpose of giving notice that a swarm had issued forth, and that the owner was anxious to claim the right of following, even though it should alight on a neighbour's premises. It would be curious to trace how this ancient ceremony has thus got corrupted from the original design.
In case the bees do not speedily after swarming manifest signs of settling, a few handfuls of sand or loose mould may be thrown up into the air so as to fall among the winged throng; they mistake this for rain, and then very quickly determine upon settling. Some persons squirt a little water from a garden engine with the same object. There are, indeed, many ingenious devices used by apiarians for decoying the swarms. Mr. Langstroth mentions a plan of stringing dead bees together, and tying a bunch of them on any shrub or low tree upon which it is desirable that they should alight; another plan is to hang some black woven material near the hive, so that the swarming bees may be led to suppose they see another colony, to which they will hasten to attach themselves. Swarms have a great affinity for each other when they are adrift in the air; but, of course, when the union has been effected, one of the rival queens has to be disposed of. A more ingenious device than any of the above is by means of a mirror to flash a reflection of the sun's rays amongst a swarm, which bewilders the bees and checks their flight. It is manifestly often desirable to use some of these endeavours to induce early settlement, and to prevent, if possible, the bees from clustering in high trees or under the eaves of houses, where it may be difficult to hive them.
Should prompt measures not be taken to hive the bees as soon as the cluster is well formed, there is danger that within one or two hours they may start on a second flight; and this is what the apiarian has so much to dread. If the bees set off a second time it is generally for a long flight, often for miles, so that in such a case it is usually impossible to follow them, and consequently a valuable colony may be irretrievably lost.
Too much care cannot be exercised to keep off the sun from a swarm when it has once settled. If exposed to heat in this way, bees are very likely to decamp. We have frequently stretched matting or sheeting on poles so as to intercept the glare, and thus render their temporary position cool and comfortable. For the same reason the hive used to take them in should not have been standing in the sun.
Two swarms sometimes depart at the same time, and join together; in such a case we recommend that they be treated as one, by putting them into a hive as before described, taking care to give abundant room and not to delay affording access to the super hive or glasses. They will settle their own notions of sovereignty by one queen being destroyed. There are means of separating two swarms, but the operation is a formidable one, and does not always repay even those most accustomed to such manipulation. If after one swarm has started there are signs of another setting out which might mix with it, means may be taken for securing the queen of the second, or sheets may be thrown over the hive.
With regard to preparations for taking a swarm, our advice to the bee-keeper must be the reverse of Mrs. Glass's notable injunction as to the cooking of a hare. Some time before you expect to take a swarm, be sure to have a suitable hive in which to take it, and also every other requisite properly ready. A bee veil or dress will preserve the most sensitive from the possibility of being stung. This article is fully described on [page 209]. But bees when swarming are in an eminently peaceful frame of mind; having dined sumptuously, they require to be strongly provoked before they will sting. Yet there may be one or two foolish bees who, having neglected to fill their honey-bags, are inclined to vent their ill-humour on the apiarian; or, what is far more likely, the bees of neighbouring hives may be incensed if they see him manifesting unusual excitement. When all is ready the new hive (a straw skep is the most convenient in the first instance, but if that is not at hand a box or anything else will serve as a substitute) is held or placed in an inverted position under the cluster of bees, which the operator detaches from their perch with one or two quick shakes; the floor-board is next placed on the hive, which is then slowly turned up on to its base, and it is well to leave it a short time in the same place, in order to allow of stragglers joining their companions. The operator should make sure that he has not left the queen behind on the branch, as in that case the bees would return to her.
Sometimes swarms alight on trunks of trees or on walls, where it may be difficult to shake or brush them off. The late Mr. Woodbury mentioned an instance of this kind. A swarm clustered among the large branches of a pear tree, just at their point of union with the trunk. In this case he merely supported a straw hive just over the swarm with the left hand, whilst he struck the trunk of the tree with the open palm of the right. The vibration thus produced sent the bees up into the hive with great rapidity, and the entire swarm was speedily hived in the most satisfactory manner. Mr. Langstroth in a similar case fastened a leafy branch above the bees with a gimlet, and then smoked them upwards till clustered upon it. It should be borne in mind that they have always a readier tendency to ascend than to descend. A feather dipped in carbolic acid will very promptly move them, and as they can readily escape from its fumes there is no objection in this case to its use. Another case of settling in an awkward spot is mentioned above ([page 78]).
If the new swarm is intended for transportation to a distance, it is as well for it to be left at the same spot until evening, provided the sun is shaded from it; but if the hive is meant to stand in or near the same garden, it is better to remove it within half an hour to its permanent position, because so eager are newly swarmed bees for pushing forward the work of furnishing their empty house that they sally forth at once in search of materials. If the removal has been made after they have gone forth they will be unable to find their home in its altered position, in which case they will circle about for hours till they fall and die from exhaustion. But by prompt transference, only the first despatch of scouts will be lost, and these are a good loss, as they might entice the whole colony to desert.
The bee-master should always seek to prevent his labourers from swarming more than once; his policy is rather to encourage the industrious gathering of honey, by keeping a sufficient supply of supers on the hives. Sometimes, however, he may err in putting on the supers too early or unduly late, and the bees will then swarm a second time, instead of making use of the storerooms thus provided. In such a case the clever apiarian, having spread the swarm on the ground, will select the queen, and cause the bees to go back to the hive from whence they came. But this operation requires an amount of apiarian skill which, though it may easily be attained, is greater than is usually possessed.
For a description of the theory and phenomena of swarming, with the signs by which its imminence may be gathered, and a variety of information referring chiefly to the habits and life of the insect, the reader is referred to an earlier article in this work ([Chap. I. § xi.]).