KEEP THEM FROM SWARMING.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2046, 14 September 1880, Page 4

KEEP THEM FROM SWARMING.

["Prairie Farmer."] IE yon want honey have no swarms. It is evident that when the honey-gathering season is at its height, if many thousands of the honey harvesters leave a hiv, the storing of honey will be for a time suspended for that oolony, and Buoh iuterruptions often eause nice honey boxes to be left provokingly unfinished. The general rule is that bees in small hives will swarm a great deal more than those in roomy quarters. Therefore, as soon as harvest time comes, the bees should be allowed as much space as the hive can give them ; surplus boxes, sidecombs, &c, should be well within their ranch, and euen though they have no honey to store in them, they will use them to hang in instead of clustering outside. An experienced bee-keeper with only a few colonies to manage, can control swarming almost altogether, by giving the bees room in time to prevont what is called " swarming fever," and alaoby dividing, in case queen-cella are started and the bees have fairly made up their minds.

"With hires of a sufficient capacity, one can, ■by timely interference, at least dispense with the inconvenience of after swarms, even though there be one hundred or more hires to manage. The real condition of a hire can only bo ascertained by looking 'through it carefully, if capped queen cells are found it may be expected to swarm at any moment. In such a case, the destruction of a queens' cells will only retard the swarm for a few days unless the orop stops short. We always try to have very prolific queens, our hives are quite large, the result is that wo not seldom gather clusters of bees that would about fill a half-bushel measure. Our swarms always come later than those of our neighbours, and second swarms are quite rare. On the other hand, our honey crop is a matter of great surprise to those whose bees have the #«no paeturage us ours, but not the same size of hive nor the same treatment.