SWARMING.
However populous a stock of bees may be in the autumn, its numbers are
greatly reduced during winter, perhaps about six or seven eighths. This
loss is more than replaced in the spring, by the amazing fecundity of the
queen. Hence arises a disposition to throw off swarms, which, of course,
will issue more or less frequently, more or less early, and in greater or
less force, according to the temperature of the season, the fertility of
the queen, the populousness of the stock, and the attention that has been
paid to early feeding.
It is a prevalent opinion, that a swarm consists entirely of young bees;
but this is an error: every swarm contains a mixture of young and old;
the latter are distinguishable by being of a redder hue, and having
ragged wings.
_In favourable seasons, a good stock will throw off three swarms, even
a swarm of the current year will sometimes throw off another swarm_; in
this latter case, there is but a small collection of honey, compared with
the great number of bees which have been called into existence. I have
endeavoured to account for this in page 113. In the Monthly Magazine,
for Sept. 1825, an instance is recorded of five swarms being thrown off
and hived before the end of July from planting one single stock; the
season was favourable, and the situation, (High Armaside in Lorton),
particularly so. They were not all thrown off from the first or parent
stock, but from that and the earliest swarm. Bosc, the French consul
in Carolina, has stated that he had eleven swarms in one season from a
single stock; and that each of those swarms, during the same season,
threw off the same number of secondary ones!!!! The space which usually
intervenes between the first and second swarm is from seven to nine days;
between the second and third, the period is shorter; and if there should
be a fourth, it may depart the day after that which precedes it.
This succession of swarms must be owing to the great number of young
queens that obtain their liberty. As they greatly weaken the parent
stock, and are naturally weak themselves, the only resource under such
circumstances is the union of two or more of the swarms into one family.
_March is the month in which the grand laying of the queen usually
commences_; yet when January proves mild, the breeding will sometimes
begin at the latter end of _that_ month, and it is by no means an
uncommon thing for the commencement to happen in February. The queen-bee
may naturally be expected to breed earlier in the season than insects in
general, from the circumstance of the working-bees storing up food for
the young, which other insects, that breed later, do not; as also from
her living in the midst of a society which preserves a summer heat during
the coldest months of winter. A thermometer in a bee-hive has ranged as
high as 74° Fahrenheit at Christmas; and Bonner says that he has often
seen his hives with young brood in them in the midst of a severe frost.
In the Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c.
+Mr. Hubbard+ has stated that vigorous well-stored hives breed even in
the depth of winter. In this perhaps he was mistaken; the finding of eggs
and maggots in the cells does not satisfy my mind, as they might have
been laid late in the autumn, and have remained stationary till spring.
Riem states, that in a bad season the eggs will remain in the cells many
months without hatching. Mr. Hubbard was led to make the experiment of
suffocating a strong stock in February, to ascertain the state of the
brood-combs; in which he says that he found an abundance of brood, in
every state, from that of egg to the almost perfect fly; although the
preceding January had been very cold, accompanied by frost and snow,--a
circumstance which in some measure confirms my supposition, as to the
suspended development of the brood. Mr. Hubbard further adds, that on
examining two weak hives, in March and April, he found not a single egg.
From these very opposite states +Dr. Evans+ infers the great importance
of leaving stocks strong in October, and feeding them in an ungenial
autumn, conceiving that the bees apportion the numbers of their young to
the means they possess of supporting them. That
"The prescient Female rears her tender brood
In strict proportion to the hoarded food."
This, however, does not correspond with what will be stated below; from
which it will appear, that the queen sometimes lays eggs, in reliance
upon an approaching season, and does not let the number altogether depend
upon the stock of provision in the hive. The commencement of the queen's
breeding may generally be known, by the bees carrying in pellets of
farina on their thighs. For want of a sufficient supply of this, as must
happen in cold unkindly seasons, many of the nymphs are cast out, having
died probably from actual starvation. Hence the necessity, as before
stated, of having in the immediate neighbourhood of the hives such early
blossoming trees and flowers as afford plenty of farina; and also late
blossoming ones, that the bees may be enabled to lay in a store of it,
ready for spring.
Swarming may take place at any time between the beginning of April and
the latter end of August. It seldom happens before ten in the morning,
nor later than three in the afternoon, and never but in fine weather. If
it be sultry, bees are apt to rise after a storm, being anxious to escape
from the heat of the hive, rendered more intolerable by the confinement
which the storm has occasioned. In the sixth volume of the Philosophical
Transactions, an instance is recorded by +Richard Reed+, Esq. of
Lugwardine, of a swarm issuing on the 9th of March; as he supposed, in
consequence of there being an insufficient supply of food for the whole
family, a part were sent forth to seek their fortunes, lest the whole
should perish. The day, he says, was fine, but does not mention the
temperature. Probably this was a stock which had bred in the month of
February, the swarm issuing from the usual cause, a disproportion between
the size of the family and the size of the habitation.
If early swarming be desired, early breeding must be promoted, by feeding
with sugared or honeyed ale in February and March, and by keeping the
stock warm. And if the apiarian at any time wish to obtain a swarm, he
has only to withhold from his bees that accommodation which storifying
affords them.
The most advantageous time for a swarm to be thrown off is from the
middle of May to the middle of June. This period comprehends the grand
harvest season of the honeyed race. After the scythe has cut down the
flowers which adorn our meadows and yield the bees such a plentiful
supply of honey and farina, there is a very manifest relaxation in their
activity; their excursions are not only much less extensive, but less
frequent, although the weather be in all respects propitious. Swarms
that issue much earlier than the time I have specified, are apt to be
small; and should bad weather succeed, feeding will be necessary, to
prevent famine. Those that issue later, afford no better promise, either
to themselves or to the parent hives; for though late swarms are usually
large ones, they will scarcely have time to rear their brood, and to lay
in a store of honey, &c. adequate to the support of the family during
the ensuing winter and spring. Late swarming is not only hazardous
to the bees thrown off, but is injurious to the parent stock, which
suffers in proportion to the loss of labourers, that should contribute
to the general store of food, and assist in rearing the brood, which is
generally abundant, though the season be far advanced.
Hence it is the usual practice, early in the autumn, to suffocate both
the swarm and the stock, in order to secure whatever wax and honey
may have been collected up to that time. There is however another
alternative, as will be seen under the head of _Uniting Swarms or
Stocks_.
If several days of rainy weather should succeed a swarm's going off, the
stores they carry with them from the parent hive may be exhausted and
endanger a famine; in such a case recourse must be had to feeding.