CHAPTER XXII.
ARTIFICIAL SWARMS AND DIFFERENT METHODS OF FORMING THEM.
One often sees well-stocked hives that do not swarm, and which, during the whole of the summer, form large clusters, until the cold of the autumnal evenings forces the idlers to re-enter their hives; and it were vain to disturb them, to smoke them, or torment them, in the hope of forcing them to swarm. Some people have thought they might attain their object by dividing them in two; but they did not succeed. There are, however, two ways of obtaining artificial swarms; and the one which the celebrated Shirach practised successfully in Alsatia, and which was followed with the same results in the north of Germany, requires a long course of difficult and complex operations. I shall, however, proceed to give my readers some idea of it.
In spring, a little box is prepared, about six inches square, with an opening in the top, about three inches square, and another the same size in front. Each of these openings is covered with a wire-grating, close enough to prevent any bee getting through. This box rests on a stand provided with twelve wooden pins, four or five inches long, placed perpendicularly, in two rows, at the distance of three inches from each other. These pins should be so far separate as that five pieces of honey-comb, each about as big as a person's hand, may be placed between them.
Between the farthest of the pins, on the right and left hand, are put three bits of empty combs, the same height as the pins: a piece of very fine honey-comb, not candied, occupies the fourth place; and the fifth, which is the centre, remains empty. It is to be understood that the pins supporting the combs on both sides, keep them in a perpendicular situation, and prevent them touching each other, and that the spaces left between the combs is much about the same as those in the hive to allow free passage to the bees. Neither the honey-comb nor the empty combs ought to touch the board, in case of the moths taking possession of them; they are rather made to rest on two little bits of wood, raised a little above the board, and crossed by the pins.
Above the combs and the pins, a large piece of comb is placed horizontally, and covering the whole, to keep in the heat while the hatching goes on.
After all these preliminaries, a fine day is chosen, about the end of April or beginning of May, according to the climate, and according as the season is more or less advanced; and, in the heat of the day, a little before noon, a strong hive, while in full activity, is lifted up, its top rested on the ground, and the bees driven off the combs with a little tobacco smoke, in order that the proper pieces may be seen and chosen.
A piece of comb, about the size of a hand, is then cut out, containing all the three kinds of brood, that is, eggs, nymphs, but principally the little maggots, just two or three days out of the shell. The hive is then replaced on its stand, and the little bit of comb that was taken out of it is put into the box, to occupy the empty space that was left in the centre, between the pins, and about a thousand or fifteen hundred bees, taken from a cluster in some other manner, are then introduced, and the box closed, to prevent them getting out.
Their extreme agitation, approaching to despair, produces a heat so great that they would be suffocated, but for the wire-gratings above and in front. Towards night, when they become tranquil, nothing more is heard but a soft murmuring, and they begin to construct one of the great cells, that has its opening underneath, and in which they nurse and rear queens. Before the cell is completed, they carry into it a little maggot, out of the egg within two days; which being then suitably nourished, becomes a perfect queen in less than a fortnight.
For three days the box should be kept shut, and the light carefully excluded, for it would only serve to increase the agitation of the prisoners; and the upper wire-grating, being of no farther use, may be plastered over with a little clay. The fourth day the box may be carried to the apiary, and the bees set at liberty, by opening a part of the wire-grating in front.