99. Where swarms issue in spite of control measures, it is of absolute importance to prevent more swarms issuing from each such colony. Normally when a swarm issues, the hive will contain a number of capped queen cells. See illustration 36. When a swarm issues a great force of workers go with it and only enough bees will usually be left behind to look after these queen cells and to feed the brood. Normally in 7 days or less after a swarm, the young queens will begin to emerge. During these 7 days the parent colony from which the swarm came has filled up with young worker bees that have emerged. In this condition, if honey is being gathered, headed by one or more of the young newly emerged queens another or after-swarm may issue. If the prime or first swarm is delayed by inclement weather, it may not issue until the young queens have begun to emerge. In this case the prime swarm may have one or more young queens, as well as the old. This is why we suggested hiving the swarm in the regular way in paragraph 98, where part of the bees persist in remaining clustered.

100. Therefore to prevent after-swarms issuing from the hive out of which the first swarm issued, the parent colony should be left standing near its old location for 4 or 5 days. Then just before the young queens would normally begin to emerge, but before 7 days after the prime swarm issued, move the parent colony from which the first swarm issued, to a new stand. This causes it to lose its bees old enough to fly and they will go back to the old stand and strengthen the swarm. More important, it will weaken and disorganize the old colony just before the several young queens emerge. The result will usually be that the first young queen to emerge will be allowed by the workers to destroy all other queen cells or the workers may do it for her. Since bees never normally swarm except when headed by a queen, this moving of the parent colony will usually prevent the issuance of further swarms.

101. One of the commonest causes of the loss of honey when swarming has been allowed, is failure of the beekeeper to transfer supers from the hive out of which the swarm issued to the new hive into which the swarm is put. Always remember that the new swarm that issued contains most of the field bees of the age to gather nectar and they will require a lot of room at once in which to store honey. Also always remember that the old queen heading the swarm just hived will commence to lay eggs heavily almost at once. You must therefore not only supply room for storage of surplus but provide adequate egg room for the queen. On the other hand, the old colony that you have moved to a new location contains fewer bees and they are largely required to look after the brood and develop a field force. They will not usually need a great deal of room within a week or 10 days unless there is a very heavy honey flow on and the colony was left exceptionally strong after the swarm issued. In hiving a swarm during the honey flow, if drawn combs are given, they may become honey clogged before the queen can lay eggs fast enough to occupy them. It is true that a queen after beginning to lay again, will usually force the bees to remove honey from the brood chamber and take it up into the supers. However, this action may be slow and the queen not allowed enough brood room to keep up colony strength either for the present or for wintering. Many beekeepers follow the practice of always hiving a swarm onto frames containing full sheets of foundation. This forces the honey up into the supers, either in extracted or section honey production. The queen will occupy the foundation as fast as it is drawn out if conditions continue favorable. However, it is advisable to leave one or two drawn combs in the brood chamber, under the excluder, when hiving a swarm. This allows the queen some room to lay before the foundation can be drawn out. It is believed that forcing the queen to an unnatural cessation of egg laying harms her in some way and increases supersedure. See paragraphs 133 and 134. However, it is a good rule never to have foundation drawn out in a brood chamber except during a honey flow. Should the honey flow cease before all the foundation in a brood chamber is drawn out, the foundation should be removed and drawn combs substituted. Bees tend to gnaw and spoil foundation which they do not draw out soon. Where drawn combs are not available to substitute for frames containing sheets of foundation in the brood chamber, resort to feeding to get the foundation drawn out. Bees cannot winter on sheets of foundation. See paragraphs No. 129 and 132.

102. A good maxim for the beekeeper is exactly opposite the once accepted theory that swarms were necessary for the success of the bees. The maxim to remember is "The more swarms, the less honey." The success of your efforts toward the control of swarming at this time will govern almost completely the success of the measures discussed in the next two chapters either for the production of section comb honey or extracted honey.

Questions You Should Be Able To Answer

1. Of what value is the clipping of queen's wings?

2. How does shade affect swarming preparations?

3. What is the cause of after-swarms?

4. How would you proceed to hive a swarm where the queen had been clipped previous to the issue of the swarm?