The honey bee: a manual of instruction in apicultureBenton, Frank
Science
The honey bee: a manual of instruction in apiculture
Benton, Frank
Bee culture; Bees
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.
DEQUEENING.
The removal of a queen at the opening of the 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 rearing may decimate the colony and
prove very disastrous to it. The plan is therefore not to be commended.
REQUEENING.
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