APIARY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1191, 28 December 1894, Page 6

APIARY.

ARTIFICIAL SWARMING.

Mr C. Mansfield, Largs, N.S.W., has the following remarks on the subjest of artificial swarming iu the Australian Bee Bulletin : —"The object in resorting to artificial swarming is tn secure increase, and information on this point will be sought chiefly by beginners. The subject is a very important one at this time of the year. Occasionally I receive from a correspondent an inquiry like the following : —' Tt is now three years since I bought a hive of Italian bees, and I have never got a swarm from them. They work well; I have only taken the honey from them twice. I thought by not interfering with them too much they would send out swarms. What would you advise me to do V In a case like this, with a practically non-swarming strain of bees, the end sought was effectually frustrated by the means adopted for its accomplishment, viz, leaving them the honey, and not ' interfering ' with them. The honey should have been removed to give laying room for the queen, and when overcrowded the swarm should have been divided. And by this time at least a hundred colonies could have been secured from the one, provided the range was a good one, that is, the one could have been made into five the first summer, the five into twenty five the second summer, and the twentyfive into a hundred or more the third summer.

"To swarm bees artificially, or, which is about the same thing, to divide them, we must be careful to wait till the weather is warm, and the swarm to be divided is pretty full of bees. Then, having an empty hive prepared, and in this case I should strongly advocate the use of full sheets of foundation, with foundation or starters in the frames, first find the queen, and place the comb she is on to one fide. Remove the old hive from its stand and put the new hive in its place. Take a comb of honey from the old hive, and place in front of the new hive, next that an empty frame or frame of foundation (an empty comb would be preferable) then the comb with the queen, then another empty frame, then a comb of unsealed brood, and next a comb of honey, and then fill up with empty frames. Now take the old hive to a new location with the greater part of the bees, and the combs having mostly sealed brood. In the old hive place the combs without empty frames between, for the present, tuck both hives in nice and snug, and leave ; them so for nine days or ten at tli3 | latest. Then examine the old hive, which of course has no queen, and most likely several queen cells will be found. Cut all these out but one, and place in protectors (Doolittle's or West's) for use in the following manner :—-Divide as many colonias as there are nice big queen cells, and place one cell in the queenless half of each divided colony. The queenless half of a divided colony will appear at a standstill for a week, because all the old or field bees wiil return to the old stand where the new

hive is. And from this it will be seen why the queen is left on the old stand where she will be supplied with laying room by the extra force of workers, and it will also be seen why the unsealed larvae must be left on the old stand. In resorting to artificial swarming we must be careful to remember the old Latin adage, Festina lente —hasten slowly. Let the colonies be in good strength before dividing, because one good colony with Us one queen will increase, that is build up, more rapidly than half a dozen weak nuclei with as many queens. I heard a Very wise remark once from an old man relating to agriculture. He said, 'lf we would do well at farming, we must plough plenty of land, but let it be ploughed downwards.' In the same way if we would do well at bee keeping we must keep plenty of beea but let them be in few hives—deep ones. Full hives, few swarms, much honey. Many swarms, couch bother, and little honey. Wc sometimes hear of a beekeeper getting three or four swarms from one hive in as many week?. Well, if such a one had his yard fully stocked, wi h, say, a couple of hundred hives, whataKvely time he would have, but not with the extractor. Young queens are now so cheap that it would be more advisable to buy them from reliable breeders and introduce them to the queenless halves of divided colonies. In this way time would be saved, and the risk of the loss of the queen, when abroad for mating, obviated."