Under the conditions most frequently occurring, however--that is, where
it is not practicable to be present at all times during the swarming
season, or where the desired number of colonies has been attained--a
system of management is advisable which in general contemplates the
prevention, in so far as possible, of the issuance of swarms without at
the same time interfering with honey storing. The paragraphs following
on this subject are taken from the Department publication "The Honey
Bee," cited on page 15, footnote:
The most commonly practiced and easily applied preventive measure
is that of giving abundant room for storage of honey. This to be
effective should be given early in the season, before the bees get
fairly into the swarming notion, and the honey should be removed
frequently, unless additional empty combs can be given in the case
of colonies managed for extracted honey, while those storing in
sections should be given additional supers before those already on
are completed. With colonies run for comb honey it is not so easy
to keep down swarming as in those run for extracted honey and kept
supplied with empty comb. Free ventilation and shading of the hives as
soon as warm days come will also tend toward prevention. Opening the
hives once or twice weekly and destroying all queen cells that have
been commenced will check swarming for a time in many instances, and
is a plan which seems very thorough and the most plausible of any to
beginners. But sometimes swarms issue without waiting to form cells;
it is also very difficult to find all cells without shaking the bees
from each comb in succession, an operation which, besides consuming
much time, is very laborious when supers have to be removed, and
greatly disturbs the labors of the bees. If but one cell is overlooked
the colony will still swarm. The plan therefore leaves at best much to
be desired, and is in general not worth the effort it costs and can
not be depended on.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.--The Simmins nonswarming
system--single-story hive with supers: _bc_, brood chamber; _sc_,
supers; _st_, starters of foundation; _e_, entrance.]
=Dequeening.=--The removal of a queen at the opening of a
swarming season interferes, of course, with the plans of the bees,
and they will then delay swarming until they get a young queen. Then,
if the bee keeper destroys all queen cells before the tenth day,
swarming will again be checked. But to prevent swarming by keeping
colonies queenless longer than a few days at most is to attain a
certain desired result at a disproportionate cost, for the bees will
not store diligently when first made queenless, and the whole yield
of honey, especially if the flow is extended over some time, or other
yields come later in the season, is likely or even nearly sure to
be less from such colonies, while the interruption to brood roaring
may decimate the colony and prove very disastrous to it. The plan is
therefore not to be commended.
=Requeening.=--Quite the opposite of this, and more efficacious
in the prevention of swarming, is the practice of replacing the old
queen early in the season with a young one of the same season's
raising, produced, perhaps, in the South before it is possible to
rear queens in the North. Such queens are not likely to swarm during
the first season, and, as they are vigorous layers, the hive will
be well populated at all times and thus ready for any harvest. This
is important, inasmuch as a flow of honey may come unexpectedly
from some plant ordinarily not counted upon; and also, since the
conditions essential to the development of the various honey-yielding
plants differ greatly, their time and succession of honey yield
will also differ with the season the same as the quantity may vary.
Young queens are also safest to head the colonies for the winter.
The plan is conducive to the highest prosperity of the colonies,
and is consistent with the securing of the largest average yield of
honey, since, besides giving them vigorous layers, it generally keeps
the population together in powerful colonies. It is therefore to be
commended on all accounts as being in line with the most progressive
management, without at the same time interfering with the application
of other preventive measures.
=Space near entrances.=--Arranging frames with starters, or combs
merely begun, between the brood nest and the flight hole of the hive,
while the bees are given storing space above or back of the brood nest
(figs. 7 and 8), is a plan strongly recommended by Mr. Samuel Simmins,
of England, and which has come to be known as "the Simmins nonswarming
method," some features of it and the combination into a well-defined
method having been original with him. It is an excellent preventive
measure, though not invariably successful, even when the distinctive
features brought forward prominently by Mr. Simmins--empty space
between the brood combs and entrance, together with the employment of
drawn combs in the supers--are supplemented by other measures already
mentioned; but when, in addition to the space between the brood and
the flight hole, the precaution be taken to get supers on in time, to
ventilate the hive well, and to keep queens not over two years old,
swarming will be very limited. If to these precautions be added that
of substituting for the old queens young ones of the current season's
raising, before swarming has begun, practical immunity from swarming
is generally insured.
=Selection in breeding.=--Some races of bees show greater
inclination than others toward swarming, and the same difference can
be noted between individual colonies of a given race; therefore,
whatever methods be adopted to prevent or limit increase, no doubt
the constant selection of those queens to breed from whose workers
show the least tendency toward swarming would in time greatly reduce
this disposition. Indeed, it is perfectly consistent to believe that
persistent effort, coupled with rigid and intelligent selection, will
eventually result in a strain of bees quite as much entitled to be
termed nonswarming as certain breeds of fowls which have been produced
by artificial selection are to be called nonsitters. These terms are
of course only relative, being merely indicative of the possession
of a certain disposition in a less degree than that shown by others
of the same species. It might never be possible to change the nature
of our honeybees so completely that they would never swarm under any
circumstances, and even if possible it would take a long period, so
strongly implanted seems this instinct. But to modify it is within
the reach of any intelligent breeder who will persistently make the
effort. Such work should be undertaken in experimental apiaries where
its continuance when a single point has been gained will not be
affected by the changes of individual fortunes.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.--The Simmins nonswarming
system--double-story hive with supers: _bc_, brood chamber; _sc_,
supers; _st_, chamber with starters of comb foundation; _e_, entrance.]