THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3889, 25 September 1928, Page 11

THE APIARY.

By

J. A.

SWARMING TIME. In the northern provinces of the Dominion we are within a very few weeks of swarming time. Even in Southland we have knoivn swarms to issue in the last week of October. Usually, however, swarms do not issue in the south before the last week of November. The squally weather of October and November seem to steady the development in the hives, and consequently the beekeeper who is so inclined is able without much trouble to hold back swarming for several weeks longer. The leading beekeepers of U.S.A, seem to have arrived at the conclusion that swarming is not likely to take place until there is a crush of young bees in the brood nest, and that that crush has much to do with and is really the cause of swarming. If that conclusion is correct, it is easy to understand that temperature has also a good deal to do with it. Where brood is hatching fast in a well-developed brood nest a few very warm days will intensify the feeling of crush, and lead to the building of queen cells in preparation for swarming. This does not hold good of the field bees, as on these warm days they will leave the hive in large numbers to work in the field, either gathering pollen or nectar. The young bees, however, do not go to the field for (it is supposed) a fortnight after hatching, though it is known that when the field bees are removed they will do field work earlier. When we remember that the queen under normal circumstances and with plenty of stores lays from 1000 to 2000 eggs per day, and that hatching must be at the same rate, it can be understood how fast- the brood chamber fills up with young bes. THE BEEKEEPER’S PROBLEM.

What to do about swarming is the beekeeper’s great problem. To allow the bees to follow their own instinct in the matter, while it may lead to a large increase of colonies, is not likely to produce a correspondingly large crop of honey. The reason of this is not far to seek. The first swarm proceeding from a crushed brood nest will be all right. It will be a big swarm, and will have the old queen along with it, ready to start laying as soon as comb space is available. .The swarm may weight 81b or 101 b, and, as all swarms do, will work with a vim that will show good results in a very short time. But what of the old colony, denuded of the greater part of its working force and without a queen ? It has to play a waiting game. A comparison of the entrance of the two hives, the swarm and the old colony, will show at a glance the difference in the amount of work going on. The swarm is then working at high pressure, while the old colony is almost at a standstill. It will, under normal conditions, be eight days before the young queen hatches, but meantime the old queen’s brood has been ■ hatching out rapidly, and so the population increases again. The young queen when she hatches will still be another eight or ten days before she begins to lay, and if, with the population increased by all the old queen’s brood, the colony could go right on it would still be a strong colony and do good work. Unfortunately, however, another force comes into fllay. With the first swarm it was a matter of crush, now it would seem to be a natural desire for increase. When the first swarm was determined on the bees raised, not one, but about a dozen queen cells. A point for decision comes to the bees themselves at the time when the first of these young queens hatches. If they decide not to send out another swarm the other young queens are killed off, and the swarming is finished for the season; but if, as is more likely to happen, they decide the other way, then the cells are protected, and the young queen lea_ds out swarm No. 2. * This swarm will be much smaller than was the first one, with the further disadvantage that it is headed by a virgin queen. Wien the next young queen hatches, which will be probably the next day, a point'of decision is reached again, and it often happens that a third swarm is sent out still smaller than the last one, and leaving an old colony that is no better than a cast swarm itself.

When in a commercial apiary a large proportion of the colonies are behaving irf this way, then it is a case of the’apiary going crazy, and the beekeeper is not unlikely to follow suit. This is the natural result that the beekeper may expect when the colonies are left to follow their own instinct. Up to a point natural swarming is quite satisfactory. If when the first swarm issues the beekeeper goes through the colony and detroys all the cells but one, then the decision is his, and the bees are forced to keep the young queeu and give up all idea of further swarming. This cutting out of queen cells must be done not earlier than five days after the swarm issued, otherwise the queens destroyed might be replaced from the old queen’s laying. There is great difficulty in following this plan out closely, as so many unexpected things seem to happen that upset the beekeeper’s calculations.