When a swarm is seen issuing or in the air, the best thing to do is, in
general, simply to wait a bit. The weather is usually rather warm then,
and rushing about to get tin pans, dinner gongs, spraying outfits,
etc., aside from its disagreeableness, may get one so excited and into
such a perspiration as to unfit him to do with the bees that which is
likely to be necessary a few minutes later. The bees will probably
gather in a clump on a tree or bush near the apiary, and however
formidable getting them into the hive may at first seem, nothing will
be simpler than shaking them into their new hive, or into a basket or
box, from which they may be poured in front of the hive, just as one
would pour out a measure of wheat or beans. If any stick to the basket
or box, invert it and give a sharp thump with one edge against the
ground. If the hive has been standing in the shade so that the boards
composing it are not heated, and if it be now well shaded and plenty of
ventilation be given above and below, the bees are almost certain to
take possession at once and begin work actively.
The securing of swarms can be made, however, even simpler than this
by having the colonies placed several feet apart on a smooth lawn or
dooryard and clipping one wing of each laying queen so as to prevent
her flying. The prime or first swarm from each hive is accompanied by
the old queen, and if she be clipped she will of course fall from the
alighting board to the ground and may be secured in a cage. The bees
will circle about a few times and return. Meanwhile the only thing for
the attendant to do is to replace the parent colony by an empty hive.
The returning bees will enter the latter and the queen may be allowed
to go in with them, the cage being placed with its open end directly
against the entrance to insure this. The swarm is thus made to hive
itself.
The parent colony removed to a new stand a rod or more away will rarely
give a second swarm. But to make certain all queen cells except one may
be cut out four or five days after the issuance of the first swarm.
At the same time one-third to one-half of the remaining bee's of the
removed colony may be shaken at the entrance of the hive containing the
swarm. This reduces the population of the parent colony greatly, but
the loss is soon made good by the young workers emerging daily, and
the new queen which will issue from the single queen cell, spared when
cutting out cells, will soon restock the hive with brood. The shaking
out of additional bees, coupled with the removal of all queen cells
but one, will prevent for the time all further swarming from the given
hive, and in most instances end it for the season. The bees thus added
to the newly hived swarm, even though too young to enter the field at
once as honey gatherers, will nevertheless release from inside work an
equal number of older bees, enabling the latter to go out as field bees.
Each after-swarm (second, third, etc.), it should be borne in mind, is
accompanied by one or more unimpregnated queens, and these must not be
clipped until they have flown out and mated. The regular deposition of
eggs in worker cells may nearly always be regarded as a safe sign that
mating has taken place. Eggs will usually be found in such cells within
the first ten days of the queen's life. After-swarms may remain in the
air, circling about for some time, and they frequently cluster high--a
good reason, in addition to the more important fact that their issuance
is not consistent with the production of the most surplus honey, for
the prevention of all after-swarming.