Bee swarm

“ Sometimes this swarm is so heavy that it falls from sheer weight. But generally the bees hanging on to the bough increase in numbers in order to hold safely aloft the hanging swarm.
“Once the swarm is large enough, it is best for the bee-farmer to gather it into a hive. This is when he beats a drum or a tin pan to imitate thunder. That always frightens the bees and the queen readily leads them into a new home. If a real thunderstorm overtakes the swarm and rain falls heavily before the farmer has gathered the bees into a shelter, he has lost them. ”

“ It has been argued by some, and with much reason, that "nature is the best guide, and it is better to let the bees have their own way about swarming—if honey is abundant, and the stock is in condition to spare a swarm, their own instincts will teach them to construct royal cells; if it fails before they are ready, and the royal brood is destroyed, it is because the existence of the swarm would be precarious, and it is best not to issue." ”

“ It is at this time, when hundreds of young bees are daily coming into existence, that the collateral boxes are of the utmost importance—both to the bees domiciled in them, and to their proprietors; for when the brood become perfect bees in a common cottager's hive, a swarm is the necessary consequence. The queen, accompanied by a vast number of her subjects, leaves the colony, and seeks some other place in which to carry on the work nature has assigned her. But as swarming may by proper precaution and attention to this mode of management generally be prevented, it is good practice to do so ”

“ He is a wise bee-master, then, who takes but one swarm from each stock; he may, generally speaking, depend on having stronger swarms, and a greater quantity of honey than he would have procured from double the number of seconds. There is but one way of preventing second swarms, and that is, by giving them more room, and destroying all the remaining royal cells, as soon as it is ascertained that a young Queen has been hatched, to preside over the community. A first swarm departs only on a fine day, when the sky is clear, and the sun shines; a second, or cast, is not so scrupulous. ”

“ When they return, if they find the bees clustered where they were when they left, they soon lead them off to the new quarters, but if before the scouts are sent out, or before they return, the swarm is hived and placed on the stand it is to occupy, then the swarm will not leave, for the scouts know not where to find them, or if they should find them, the bees would seldom leave a good clean hive, for a home in the woods. These scouts may often be seen playing about the place where a swarm has clustered, for several days after the swarm has been hived. ”

“ Yes, put an empty frame into the middle of a brood-nest at a time when there was any likelihood of swarming, and I should expect a good share of the comb built to be drone, especially if there was no drone-comb in the other frames.
3. Bees having a young queen are not so likely to swarm as those having an old one, and rearing a queen in a hive in the fall would not interfere with the harvest as would rearing one before the harvest. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A swarm on the wing is a most agreeable spectacle to the Bee-master. It is true his harvest of honey might be more plentiful, were the population to remain undivided, and be accommodated with additional room, either by means of storifying or collateral hiving; still, to the lover of nature, the development of the instincts and habits of this interesting insect, which takes place in the process of swarming, is a source of genuine pleasure. ”

“ As to the bees coming down to the ground, that is often the case. When a swarm issues, the bees are so full of honey that it is difficult for them to fly, and they often light to rest. I have often had swarms to settle in three or four places, though they had but one queen, remain for ten or fifteen minutes, and then all join the cluster with the queen. ”

“ Bees are perfectly harmless in swarming. But of course any attempt to drive them off from their queen by violence never can be made with impunity.
But in the swarming season it is most expedient that nobody but their bee-master should take any share in hiving a swarm; for so nervous are most people at the presence of ten thousand stings, that they will indiscreetly and ignorantly irritate such members of the young family as may accidentally alight on them. ”

“ Too much care cannot be exercised to prevent the sun's rays falling on a swarm when it has once settled. If exposed to heat in this way, bees are very likely to decamp. We have frequently stretched matting or sheeting on poles so as to intercept the glare, and thus render their temporary position cool and comfortable.
Two swarms sometimes depart at the same time and join together; in such a case, we recommend that they be treated as one by putting them into a hive as before described, taking care to give abundant room, and not to delay affording access to the super hive or glasses. ”

“ At dinner the experiences of the apiary were discussed, and Leonard asked, "Do you think the old-fashioned custom of beating tin pans and blowing horns influences a swarm to alight? The custom is still maintained by some people in the vicinity."
"I doubt it," said Webb. "It is no longer practiced by scientific bee-keepers, and yet it is founded on the principle that anything which disconcerts the bees may change their plans. It is said that water or dry earth thrown into a whirling swarm will sometimes cause it to alight or return to the hive." ”

“ If the swarm has taken flight in the morning, the same Bees make several excursions during the day, and each time with less precaution, as, becoming familiarised with their dwelling, they are less afraid of mistaking it; and thus, next morning, supposing themselves in the same place, they take wing without having observed where they have spent the night, and surprised at their return not to find the hive in the same place, they fly about all day in search of it, until they perish with fatigue and despair. ”

“ On the 6th of June two very large swarms got together. I divided and equalised them, and thinking each had a queen, I left them and went to other work. One of the queen’s wings being cropped, I had put her on the cluster before the other swarm issued—the two stands sat about a rod apart. About an hour after this one of the stands became restless, the bees flying out and in, but neither going back to the old stand, nor to the one I had just separated them from; nor settling, either, except on the tops of the weeds and grass, two rods below the two stands, and under the limb they had swarmed on. ”

“ After a swarm, the bees seem to forget all about their old life and companions, for the hive containing the swarm may be placed quite close to the old hive without either set of bees taking the slightest notice of the other.
If a bee-keeper is not at hand to take the swarm, the bees will probably make their home in some hollow tree. They will commence to build combs, and young bees will be reared and honey stored just as in a hive. ”

“ But perhaps you have a swarm from one of your own stock-hives,—not so desirable as the purchase of a swarm from a neighbour. A swarm will occasionally emerge from hives and bee-boxes, in spite of every plan of preventing it. The signs of swarming are some of them appreciable by the most expert bee-master only. A common sign of the emergence of a swarm is inactivity in work, and about the hive clusters hanging from the bee-board—arising, probably, from the old queen finding no princess ready to take her throne—and a high temperature within. ”

“ This is kept up without cessation till swarming time, when the hive becomes crowded with bees, then, as preparation for swarming, the queen deposits eggs, from which the bees, by a special course of treatment, rear queens. When they are sealed over, as shown in the plates, the old queen leaves the hive with the first swarm to seek a new home. In about ten days the young queens hatch and lead out after-swarms—second, third, etc. When swarming is over, the strongest queen destroys the others, and reigns over the old swarm till another swarming season. ”

“ If the new swarm is intended for transportation to a distance, it is as well for it to be left at the same spot until evening, provided the sun is shaded from it; but if the hive is meant to stand in or near the same garden, it is better to remove it within half an hour to its permanent position, because so eager are newly swarmed bees for pushing forward the work of furnishing their empty house that they sally forth at once in search of materials. ”

“ And yet, for all this, there exists not a single instance of a swarm refusing its duty, or allowing itself to be baffled or discouraged by the strangeness of its surroundings, except only in the case of the new dwelling being absolutely uninhabitable, or impregnated with evil odours. And even then the bees will not be disheartened or bewildered; even then they will not abandon their mission. The swarm will simply forsake the inhospitable abode, to seek better fortune some little distance away. ”

“ With a very forward stock, and in exceedingly fine weather, bees do occasionally swarm in April. The earlier the swarm, the greater is its value. If bees swarm in July, they seldom gather sufficient to sustain - 22 - themselves through the winter, though by careful feeding they may easily be kept alive, if hived early in the month.
The cause of a swarm leaving the stock-hive is, that the population has grown too large for it. Swarming is a provision of Nature for remedying the inconvenience of overcrowding, and is the method whereby the bees seek for space in which to increase their stores. ”

“ In some cases the help of a puff or two of tobacco-smoke may be useful, should the few Bees left be angry, or the operator feel at all timid. The readiest way of returning the swarm will be to lay a board upon the floor-board of the hive, and parallel with it, upon which, by a smart and sudden movement, shake the swarm, and as nigh to the entrance of the parent hive as can be done conveniently, and with the finger, or a piece of wood, guide a few Bees to the entrance, and the remainder will follow immediately. ”

“ If two or more of these royal ladies should happen to be at liberty at the same time, there is always a contest, which continues till fatal to all but one. A swarm consists of a queen, several thousands of working bees of all ages, generally also of a few hundreds of drones. ”

“ The average number of a hive, or swarm, is from fifteen to twenty thousand bees. Nineteen thousand four hundred and ninety-nine are neuters or working bees, five hundred are drones, and the remaining one is the queen or mother! Every living thing, from man down to an ephemeral insect, pursues the bee to its destruction for the sake of the honey that is deposited in its cell, or secreted in its honey-bag. To obtain that which the bee is carrying to its hive, numerous birds and insects are on the watch, and an incredible number of bees fall victims, in consequence, to their enemies. ”

“ Most bee-keepers have had in their yard say at least two swarms of that size that all they could do would be to get themselves into good condition as to numbers and stores for the coming winter, without giving the owner a young swarm or an ounce of surplus honey, and at the same time they were very much exposed to the moth and stood a good chance to be destroyed by them, because there are not bees enough to guard the unprotected combs. ”

“ It is well to kill her, and to do so, take with her about a pint of bees, and put them in a small miniature hive, six or eight inches square, with movable frames, like those in the central part of the controllable hive. Keep them shut in, twenty-four hours; then give them their liberty, and they will work the same as a large swarm through the summer; but will not winter. If such queens are known to be very old it is best to destroy them when we take them from the swarm. ”

“ Families put together in this way will seldom quarrel (not more than one in twenty) , but remain together, defending themselves against intruders as one swarm.
I once had a stock nearly destitute of bees, with abundant stores for wintering a large family. I had let it down on the floor-board, and was on the lookout for an attack. The other bees soon discovered this weakness, and commenced carrying off the honey. I had brought home a swarm to reinforce them only the day before, and immediately united them by means of the fumigator. ”

“ In some instances, owing to favourable breeding seasons and prolific queens, a third swarm issues from the hive, this is termed a "colt;" and in remarkable instances, even a fourth, which in rustic phrase is designated a "filly." A swarm from a swarm is called a "maiden" swarm, and according to bee theory, will again have the old queen for its leader. ”