15. Securing Swarms

No matter how well one manages bees, they will occasionally swarm. The first swarm out-prime swarm-contains the field workers. If one loses this swarm, he loses his crop of honey.

If the queens are all clipped, the prime swarms will return to the hives from which they emerged.

What Is a swarm? Why do the bees all cluster together? Why don't they sting you? Samples of the questions which a photo such as this brings forth.

(Gleanings, July 1933, p. 397).

Swarms can be hived in several ways. Often a branch of a tree can be cut and the swarm carried to a hive and jarred off in front of the hive. If they are on the side of a post or trunk of a tree, they can be gently scooped with a tin cup and shaken before or into a hive. It is well to give them a little smoke while doing this. A swarm can also be shaken into a burlap sack and carried to a hive. A bushel basket or paper carton can be fastened to a pole and a swarm in a tree can be jarred into it. A swarm of bees will remain contented in a hive if they are given a frame of brood from another hive and the hive shaded.

Bees in the hot summer will cover the front of a hive, especially if they do not have enough room in the hive, or a large enough entrance for ventilation or sufficient shade. One can make the entrance larger by placing blocks of wood between the bottom-board and hive-body, easily doubling the size of the entrance.

One hot summer our bees each evening would cover the front of the hives. I found the bees gone from the front of the hive that had the largest amount of bees. Sometimes bees will swarm on a limb or bush and hang for a day before they leave. I looked for the swarm in the orchard and found them on the grass. A hive was placed near them and some of the bees shaken at the entrance, but the swarm failed to go in. Night was at hand and so I had to leave them till morning. I got up very early and when I reached the swarm they were all astir and some of the bees in the air. I hurriedly got the sprinkling can full of water and sprinkled a pail of water on the bees on the grass. With a tin cup, I scooped up the bees and shook them into the hive or at the entrance till the swarm entered. Then I destroyed the queen-cells in the hive from which they emerge and carried the swarm and shook the bees in front of this hive. They entered and remained contented.

16. Why Bees Swarm

A strong colony of bees will, if left alone, swarm three times. The first swarm emerges from the hive the day the first queen-cell is capped. Rain may delay swarming. Eight-days later a virgin queen goes_out with a swarm and the next day an after swarm.

A good queen in a strong colony of bees, with plenty of honey and room, will lay as many as 3, 000 eggs a day in the spring. Bees till they are about fourteen days of age are nurse bees. They incubate the eggs, feed the larva or grubs that emerge the third day from the eggs, build the combs, and do the work in the hive. On bright afternoons one will find them flying in front of the hive with their heads toward the home hive, learning to mark their location.

Emerging at the rate of 3, 000 a day, in fourteen days we get 42,000 young bees in the hive and this congestion, with lack of room for the queen to lay and bees to store nectar, is the main cause of swarming.

Combs contain many drone cells, too small entrances in hot weather, and insufficient protection from the heat of the sun are factors that influence bees to swarm.

Rain may keep the field workers in the hives for several days and this also adds to the congested condition which causes swarming.