Comb Honey

by Geo. S. Demuth

Any manipulation for swarm control, whether applied after the colony has acquired the "swarming fever" or applied to all colonies alike previous to the swarming season, is based upon the single principle—a temporary disturbance in the continuity of the daily emergence of brood. This disturbance should occur just previous to or during the swarming season. In natural swarming the brood and the swarm are separated, the swarm being without hatching brood during a period of three weeks. The brood from which the swarm came may be allowed to emerge in a separate hive and the resulting bees may then be returned to the swarm ([p. 29]). In this way the swarming instinct is satisfied, at least temporarily, without materially decreasing the population of the colony. The beekeeper may anticipate swarming by removing the brood from the hive, allowing it to emerge in a separate hive and finally returning these young bees to the colony in the same manner as is done with the natural swarm. Under the same conditions the subsequent behavior of a colony treated in this way is similar to that of a natural swarm. In either case there has been a break in the continuity of the emergence of young bees in the hive during a period of three weeks.

Instead of hiving a natural swarm upon empty combs or frames of foundation, combs of emerging brood (without queen cells) taken from a colony that has been queenless during a period of 10 to 15 days may be used ([p. 33]) and a similar condition may be had without swarming by removing all of the brood and substituting such combs of emerging brood, thus at least temporarily avoiding swarming. In these cases there is a break of 10 to 15 days in the continuity of the daily emergence of bees.

A similar interruption of brood rearing may be accomplished by removing the queen from the hive or caging her within the hive during a period of 10 days or 2 weeks, then returning her to the combs. In this case no queen cells must of course be allowed to mature. A condition similar to this may be obtained without removing the queen by dividing the brood chamber into two parts with queen-excluding metal, for a period of 10 to 15 days. The brood from the division containing the queen is then removed and the bees, together with the queen, shaken into the other (queenless) division, the queen cells if any being first destroyed. The brood thus removed may later be returned to the colony in the form of young bees in the usual manner ([p. 29]). Even the destruction of the sealed brood by uncapping it has been advised as a means of swarm control. This gives a period of about 12 days during which few or no young bees emerge.

These methods are illustrative of the principle employed in the various methods of control by manipulation, which may be classified under three general headings: (1) Taking the queen from the hive. (2) Taking the brood from the hive. (3) Separating the queen and brood within the hive.

The following methods of swarm control are given for the purpose of illustrating the various types of control by manipulation. It is not to be understood that all the methods given are equally adaptable to any locality or season, but it is hoped that, presented in this way, the beekeeper may more readily see the principle underlying each plan as well as the basic principle underlying all the plans and thereby be better enabled to elaborate a system of control to meet his particular requirements.

TAKING THE QUEEN FROM THE HIVE.

The temporary removal of the queen from the colony for the required time ([p. 36]) and the return of the same queen is a method which has been used in swarm control. Of course, no queen cells should be permitted to develop in the meantime. Such colonies may prepare to swarm again, especially if the period of queenlessness is not more than 10 days. The method is a valuable one, however, and may be used at any time during the season on colonies making preparations to swarm.

Dequeening in connection with requeening.—Requeening each colony with a young queen early in the season may greatly reduce the percentage of colonies that attempt to swarm but can not be relied upon as a method of complete control since during a good and prolonged honey flow quite a number of such colonies prepare to swarm. If each colony is requeened with a young queen at the beginning of the honey flow, after having been queenless for 10 or 15 days, there will probably be very little if any swarming during an ordinary season. This method is not in general use among beekeepers, largely because of the difficulty in so timing the operation that there will be no loss. The following are illustrative of the various adaptations of requeening in connection with a period of no brood rearing.

(1) Just previous to the honey flow and at about the time that heavy brood rearing is no longer desirable, remove the queen from each colony, (a) Eight or ten days later destroy all queen cells but one and allow the colony to requeen itself, or (b) destroy all queen cells 8 or 10 days after removing the queen, then after 3 to 6 days supply each colony with a "ripe" queen cell (one in which the queen is ready to emerge), a virgin queen, or a young laying queen. It is usually desirable that the interval of queenlessness be as short as possible without defeating its purpose. Some beekeepers give a young laying queen 10 days after removing the old one, or a virgin or ripe cell considerably earlier, sometimes even at the time the old queen is removed, while others prefer a period of at least 14 days before giving either a laying or a virgin queen. However, colonies with virgin queens sometimes swarm even though no other queen cells or larvæ from which to rear a queen are present. Another objection to the use of queen cells or virgin queens for this purpose is that some of the queens fail to emerge and some virgin queens fail to mate, thus leaving the colony hopelessly queenless. For these reasons, some prefer to have the young queens mate and begin to lay in "nuclei" (very small colonies) before introducing[6] them in the strong colonies. This method may be used for the entire apiary at the beginning of the honey flow or it may be applied only to those colonies making preparations to swarm.

[6] The young laying queens may be introduced Into the colony by the ordinary indirect or caging method (Farmers' Bulletin No. 447, p. 44) or together with a comb of brood and adhering from the nucleus from which she was mated.