SWARMING AND SWARM CONTROL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3475, 19 October 1920, Page 20

SWARMING AND SWARM CONTROL.

Swarming can be attributed generally to two causes—(l) a natural increase of families of bees brought about automatically; (2) an increase arising from supercedure of queens. Swarms occur under other conditions, but these are only exceptional, and do not require consideration in this article. The swarming that- is brought about automatically is probably due to there being more nurse bees in the hive than there is work for. These nurse bees, having no other employment, resort to building queen cells, swarming following as a natural result. This form of swarming can be controlled by different methods that produce conditions in the hive whereby the work of the hive bees is increased.

The swarming of supercedure, however, is difficult to control at a certain time of the year without reducing the strength of the colony to a very considerable extent, unless the system of control includes the replacing of the old queen with a young one. While this can be done in many ways, the desirability of a method that will enable it to be done without interfering with the continuous laying of the old queen and the progress of the colony as a whole is very evident.

The ideal system of management is one in which the honey flow, once started, the bees can bo left to themselves till the autumn. It is a question -whether any particular system will suit every locality, but anyone who knows his business and who has the "bee instinct'' will soon learn whether such system can be adapted to the particular conditions of his locality or not. The following system, of, working is prac-

tically a spring requeening system, with certain manipulations that hold swarming in check until a young laying queen is installed. In outlining this method, I do not mention the time when operations shall start. This will entirely depend on the number of colonies to bo dealt "with and. climatic conditions, and may vary from year to year, and must be left to the operator's knowledge and requirements. , Where - the,_ number .of colonies i 3 large, slow feeding early in the spring of those it is intended to use for queen breeding is advisable, so that the work of rearing queen cells can be started as soon as possible. The method of working is as follows: — < The bees are wintered in single brood chambers. In September a second brood chamberis put on, and the queen induced to take possession of this by putting up brood.- In October (arrange the time so that the job will be finished when the main honey flow starts) rear queen cells.. When these are ripe, the queens are shaken down from the top brood chamber and an excluder put between the two. When the bees have returned to the top brood chamber, now minus the queen, a ripe cell is inserted. This top brood chamber is now taken off, put on a separate bottom-board, and a cover is fitted. A honey storing super is put on the remaining brood chamber, which has the queen," and the cover put on. The brood chamber' with the ripe cell, now a new hive, is placed behind or on top of the parent hive, with the entrance facing the opposite way. On top is best, as sometimes, if placed behind, the field bees go into it instead of the parent hive. The hives 'can now be left as they are until the ripe cells become laying queens. When the young queens are laying, tho operator has the option of combining up; straight away if a honey, flow is on, keeping, the two queens laying separately for a time to get extra strength, or of making in-, creaso. If making increase, put the_ parent hive in a new location, thus checking any tendency to swarm by the loss of field bees, while these hives being full of brood soon develop working strength. Also, when combining up, strong and weak hives can be equalised by an interchange of the parent hives. Combining up is done as follows:—The parent hive is lifted off its stand, and the new hive put in its place, with the entrance enlarged. The excluder is put on this hive with the honey storing super from the parent hive, bees and all, placed on top. The old queen is removed from the parent hive, and this is placed on the top of the storing super. In eight or 10 days queen cells are cut out.' At this stage, if desired, enough storing room can be given, and the' hive left without further care till the autumn. It is admitted that even with this system. an occasional swarm is possible, due to imperfect young queens. But care in breeding will reduce this swarming to a minimum^ A few points require special notice':— When the parent hive is split, see that the queen-mating portion has enough honey to carry it through. See that the entrance to the queen-mating colony is not any larger than is required. Do not attempt to combine up when the bees are cross and inclined to rob; wait until they are working, and contented. This also means that the work cannot be done in the early morning and evening. Whe rearing cells, take a lesson from thei bees, and rear a lot more than are. required, but use only the best. When . inserting cells, split some of the stronger brood chambers, and make extra queen-mating colonies, so that failures to mate can be replaced by the extras. As an aid to working, a light three-leaf screen to put round the hives when inserting and taking off cells in cool winds is usefid. Also wool-padded boxes for carrying ripe cells in cell-cups and in bars, that for cell-cups having a platform with holes to take cups.—J. Rentoul, in the New land Beekeepers' Journal.