RETURNING A PART TO THE OLD STOCK.
Separate one-third or more of the two swarms, being sure there is no queen with this part, (by the test given of setting them at a distance) and then return them to one of the old stocks; they will immediately enter without contention, and issue again in about nine days, or as soon as a young queen is matured to go with them. There may be an exception to this, of one in twenty. I would have recommended this course in all cases of the kind, but there will be a loss of time for the bees in the old stock; because they are apt to be rather idle, even when they might labor in the boxes; and here there is a loss of some eight or ten days. The collections of a good swarm may be estimated at least one pound a day, (often two or three.) A swarm that just fills the hive, would make at least ten pounds box-honey, if it could have been located ten days earlier. Still another method may be adopted when you have a very small swarm, one that is not likely to fill the hive, and has not been hived more than two or three days. A third of your two swarms may be put in with that; taking care, as before, not to let your only queen go with them.
METHOD OF UNITING.
The manner of doing it is very simple; get them in a hive as before directed, and jar them out in front of the one you wish them to enter, or invert it, setting the other over, and let them run up.
WHEN CARE IS NECESSARY.
Except on the day of swarming, care is necessary not to introduce a small number with a large swarm; they are liable to be destroyed. The danger is much greater than to put together about an equal number, or a large number put in with a few. The day that swarms issue, they will generally mix peaceably, but in proportion as time intervenes between the issues, so will be the liability to quarrel. Yet, I have united two families of about equal numbers in the fall and spring, and, with a few exceptions, have had no difficulty.
SWARM-CATCHER.
There is another method of keeping swarms separate, contrived and used by a Mr. Loucks, of Herkimer Co., N.Y. He calls it a swarm-catcher; he has a half dozen of them, and says he would not do without for one season, for fifty dollars, as he has a large apiary. I made one as near as I could from seeing his, without taking the exact measure. I got out four light posts four and half feet long, one inch square; then twelve pieces of one-quarter inch stuff, four inches wide; the four for the top twelve inches long, for the bottom two were fourteen inches long, and two were twenty. These were thoroughly nailed on the ends of the posts, making it into an upright frame, the other four pieces were nailed around the middle, which made the frame firmer. I made a frame for the top, of four pieces, each an inch and a half in width, and half inch thick, halved at the ends and nailed together, and fastened by hinges to one side of the top, and a catch to hold it shut. The whole was now covered with very thin cloth to admit the light, but not so open as to let the bees through, (Mr. Loucks used cloth made for cheese-strainers.) I now had a covered frame four and half feet high, 12 inches square at the top, at the bottom 14 by 20, with a door or lid at the top, to let out the bees. On each side of the bottom I tacked a piece of common muslin, near a yard in length. When a swarm is ready to issue, the bottom of this frame is set up before the hive, one edge of the bottom rests on the bottom-board, the other against the side of the hive; the top sets off from the hive at an angle of about 45 degrees, under which a brace is set to hold it. The muslin at the bottom is to wrap around the hive at the side to prevent the escape of the bees. The swarm rushes into this without any hesitation.
When done coming out, the muslin at the bottom is drawn over it, and the frame is set in an upright position, and allowed to stand a few minutes for the bees to get quiet in the top. It is now to be laid on its side, the door opened, and the bees hived. In the few trials that I have given it, I succeeded without difficulty. But I would remark, that stocks from which swarms are caught in this way, must not be raised at the back side, as a part of the swarm would issue there, and not get into the net. Mr. Loucks had his hive directly on the board; and he told me he kept them so through the season: the only places of entrance was a sprout out of the bottom of the front side, about three inches wide by half inch deep, and a hole in the side a few inches up. You will thus perceive that stocks from which swarms are hived in this way must be prepared for it previously. Also, it will be no use to such bee-keepers as depend on seeing their swarms in the air. It will be beneficial only in large apiaries, where several swarms are liable to issue at once; the swarming indications well understood, and the apiarian on the lookout.
SWARMS SOMETIMES RETURN.