How to control swarming is truly an important question. I believe that the successful controlling of swarming is the key to success and profit in bee keeping. Now how shall we do it? I will tell you. But first a few preliminary words. If swarms are desired, we arrange in early spring to have them issue in the swarming season, and at such a time as will best suit our convenience. When no swarms are wanted, we turn the whole force of bees to storing surplus honey in small glass boxes, throughout the entire season, and have no swarms, yet have the same increase of bees that would be gained if they swarmed. Then all the bees work at storing honey in boxes, instead of swarming out; and to any one who has not tested the matter it is surprising to see the amount of honey which a swarm of bees will store when not allowed to swarm, and fed judiciously, ample box room being provided of easy access, so that all the bees have room to work, and by this plan we are not constantly watching and waiting for swarms with uncertainty throughout the entire summer, for we know with certainty when and where to look for swarms. In my plan, the swarming properties of bees are effectively controlled, without frequently disturbing or overhauling them, but by observing rules strictly in accordance with the habits and instincts of bees.[1]
[1] Here let me be clearly understood. I admit that bees will sometimes swarm, with abundant room for work in their boxes. Yet I claim that on my plan all increase by swarming may be prevented without great trouble or perplexity, such as has heretofore attended all attempts to bring about this greatly to be desired object. If a person commences bee keeping, with a certain number of swarms in controllable hives, and in early spring gives the bees access to the hive boxes, and later, after they commence work in them, gives the bees access to the top boxes, giving them otherwise ordinary care, (except to feed if desired,) but a small proportion will swarm on the average yearly. Much the larger portion will work in the boxes without swarming out, and give a handsome yield of surplus box honey, the yield of course being governed by the amount of feed given them, and the yield from flowers, etc. But if increase of stocks is preferred, rather than surplus box honey—if the bees are not given access to the boxes, but confined in their labors to the brood section of the hive, being fed as directed, nearly every one will swarm, and swarm early.
If you wish your bees in controllable hives to swarm keep the partition in place at the sides of the brood section, and the honey board over the top; or in other words, keep the bees confined in their labors to the central or brood section of the hive. Now, if you wish them to swarm in any particular week of the swarming season, ten days before, remove the old queen. (It is well to kill her, and to do so, take with her about a pint of bees, and put them in a small miniature hive, six or eight inches square, with movable frames, like those in the central part of the controllable hive. Keep them shut in, twenty-four hours; then give them their liberty, and they will work the same as a large swarm through the summer; but will not winter. If such queens are known to be very old it is best to destroy them when we take them from the swarm. Keep only young, vigorous queens.) The bees in the hive, from which you have taken the queen, will in nearly every instance, construct queen cells immediately to replace the loss of their queen. At the earliest possible moment, they seem to sense fully their loss, and to know that if they do not get another queen at once, their loss is irreparable. They usually will construct a number of cells, perhaps a half dozen or more. These will hatch in about ten days, and then swarms will issue.[2]
[2] Should any stock fail to swarm within two weeks from the time the queen is removed, at the end of that time, examine such stock, and if they have no queen they must be furnished with one. About one stock in twenty, deprived of its queen as directed, will fail to rear queens.
If you wish to devote but little time to your bees, and are not particular as to the time of swarming, and wish to have but very few swarms, or perhaps none at all, early in the spring, as soon as bees commence their work, put on the boxes (sides and top,) and give the bees access to them; side boxes first, top boxes later. By this course, but a very small proportion of your stocks will swarm, (if this plan is to be practiced each year, it will be necessary to replace the old queens with young ones every three or four years. If this is not done, queens will die, or become barren from old age, and consequently loss of stocks follows. Keep this point in your mind: young healthy, prolific queens, are essential to success,) as they will have ample room in the boxes for their labor. Occasionally a hive treated in this way will swarm, and, if you wish to have no increase of stocks whatever, if a swarm comes out, hive it in a light box, and as soon as this is done, go to the hive which they came from and smoke lightly; if the bees are cross, lift out the comb frames from the brood section with the bees adhering; examine each and every comb carefully for queen cells, and cut off all but one. Success here depends on care and thoroughness, for if you leave more than one cell, your bees may swarm out again in a day or two.
After this is done, spread a sheet on the ground; set a light box, like the one in which you have the bees, near one side; raise the edge towards where you will shake the bees one inch or a little more, to give the bees a chance to enter the box. Shake the bees from the hive, by a quick, jerking motion, upon the sheet, the most of them some two or three feet from the box. With a large spoon or ladle, put a few up near the box, so they will enter, and disturb the others gently with a quill or light brush. When they commence to enter the box, they will set up a loud and continual humming, or call, and the bees on the sheet, if lightly disturbed with the quill or brush, will spread out, and march towards the hive, while those on the wing will alight, and join them in the march. Now look closely for the queen, and capture her. If she is not found before the bees get into the box, shake them out again, and go through the same process, till you find her. As soon as you have secured the queen, the bees, in a few minutes, finding themselves destitute of a queen, and not having the means of raising another to take her place, will rise on the wing, and return to the old stock from which they came, and will not come out again, but will work in the boxes throughout the season. I will treat of this subject of swarming no further in this chapter. The merits of the Controllable Hive and New System of Bee Management, will be fully shown further on in this work, and the most explicit instructions given for rearing bees with profit.
CHAPTER III.
PATENT AND NON-PATENT HIVES, BEE JOURNALS, ETC.
I HAVE learned from bitter experience, as has nearly every one, who has kept bees for any length of time, the dishonesty, and utter disregard for truth, of a class of speculators who prey upon the unsuspecting bee-keeper. Patent hives—the great majority of them—are a curse and a hindrance to successful and profitable bee keeping. I have no time to describe the multitude of worthless patent hives, and the many tricks and swindles of the venders of the same, but I advise every bee keeper to consult his own interests, and have nothing to do with them. Ninety-nine out of every hundred are a swindle. I have tested their merits and know whereof I affirm.