After Swarms
Categories: SWARMING.Bee Keeping: Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained
After swarms are second and third issues (or all after the first) from
a stock; and quite a different affair from the first, as also are some
first swarms, when the old queen has been lost, being led out by young
queens.
THEIR SIZE.
Second swarms are usually half as large as the first, the third half as
large as the second, the fourth still less; with some variations. I
give general features, noticing only the exceptions that occur most
frequently; others sometimes happen, but so seldom that mentioning them
is deemed unnecessary.
More
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A Successful Method
When you are all ready, take a stock that can spare a swarm; if bees are on the outside, raise the hive on wedges, and drive them in with a little water, and disturb them gently with a stick. Now smoke and invert it, setting the empty hive over. If ... A Suggestion
Mr. Miner's cross-bar hive is intended to make the bees construct all straight combs, and probably will do it. But the disadvantage of bee-bread and brood in the boxes will not be made up by straight combs. For the benefit of those who have been m... A Test
But while you are learning this nice distinction, your bees may be ruined. We will, therefore, give some other means of protection. Bees, when they have been stealing a sack of honey from a neighboring hive, will generally run several inches from ... A Test For The Presence Of A Queen
If you have a hive that you suspect has lost a queen at this season, her presence can be ascertained nine times in ten by this method. Sweep off the board clean, and look the next day or two after for these eggs. Take care that ants, or mice, have n... A Test For The Presence Of Queen Doubted
It is further asserted that if a hive loses its queen "no pollen is collected." Also, "that such quantities are sometimes collected, and fill so many cells, that too little room is left for brood, and the stock rapidly dwindles away in consequence."... A Tool For Their Destruction
I have used a simple tool, made in a few minutes, and very convenient in this business. Any one can make it. Get a piece of narrow hoop-iron, (steel would be better,) three-fourth inch wide, five inches long; taper from one side three inches from th... A Young Queen Takes The Place Of Her Mother In The Old Stock
In ordinary circumstances, when a swarm has left a stock, the oldest of the young queens is ready to emerge from her cell in about eight or nine days; if no second swarm is sent out, she will take her mother's place, and begin to lay eggs in about t... Accumulation Of Faeces Described By Some Writers As A Disease
This accumulation of faeces is considered by many writers as a disease--a kind of dysentery. It is described as affecting them towards spring, and several remedies are given. Now if what I have been describing is not the dysentery, why I must think ... Accusations Not Always Right
Careless bee-keepers, when their hives are thus robbed, feel regret, or are more often vexed at somebody--at the result of their carelessness. The person, keeping most bees in a neighborhood, must expect to be accountable for all effects of their ig... Advantage Of Proper Arrangement
Two inches being nearly the right distance, each one will be so made that a bee arriving at the top of the hive between any two sheets will be able to find a passage into the box, without the task of a long search for it; which I can imagine to be t... Advantage Of The Hive Close To The Board
An inch hole in the side of the hive, a few inches from the bottom, as a passage for the bees, is needed, as I shall recommend letting the hive close to the board; it is essential on account of robbing; also, it is necessary to confine as much as po... Advantage Of The Patent Vender
Here is where the patent vender has taken the advantage of our ignorance, by pretending that no other hive but _his ever obtained such quantities, or so pure in quality_. ... Advantages In Transferring
I would now like to show the advantages I derived in transferring the twenty swarms before mentioned. We will suppose that each family, from the first of October till April, consumed twenty pounds of honey. That in the centre combs, where there is m... Advantages Of Buckwheat
Under some circumstances, clover will continue to bloom through this part of the season; also, a few other flowers; but I find by weighing, a loss from one to six pounds, between the 20th July and the 10th of August, when the flowers of buckwheat be... Advantages Of Making One Good Stock From Two Poor Ones
This making one good stock out of two poor ones, cannot be too highly recommended; aside from its advantages, it relieves us from all disagreeable feelings in taking life, that we can with but little trouble preserve. ... Advantages Of The Changeable Hive Considered
The value of changeable hives is based upon the following principle:--Each young bee when it first hatches from the egg, is neither more nor less than a worm; when it receives the necessary food, the bees seal it over; it will then spin a cocoon, or... After Swarms
After swarms are second and third issues (or all after the first) from a stock; and quite a different affair from the first, as also are some first swarms, when the old queen has been lost, being led out by young queens. THEIR SIZE. Second ... After Swarms Different In Appearance From The First When About To Issue
Another thing, when after swarms start, the appearance about the entrance is altogether different from first ones, unless there is an unusual number of bees. I have said that for a little time beforehand, that such were in an apparent tumult, &c. Bu... Age Of Bees Indicated
Hundreds of bee-keepers lose some of their stocks in this way, and can assign no reasonable cause. "Why," say they, "there wasn't twenty bees in the hive; it was all full of honey," or worms, as the case may be. "Only a short time before, it was ful... Alder Yields The First
The first material gathered from flowers is pollen. Candle-alder (_Alnus Rubra_)[9] yields the first supply. The time of flowering varies from the 10th of March to the 20th of April. The amount afforded is also variable. Cold, freezing weather frequ... All Bee-keepers Should Understand It As It Is
As a guide in many cases, it is important that the practical apiarian should understand this matter _as it is_, and not as said to be by many authors. I shall be under the necessity of differing from nearly all in many points. ... All Should Be Made To Enter
In all cases be sure to get them all to enter; a cluster outside of it may contain the queen, unconscious of a home so near; and the probable consequence might be, she would leave for a miserable one in the woods. ... Amount Of Honey Collected From It
Swarms issuing as late as the 15th July, when they commence on buckwheat, sometimes contain not over five pounds of stores, and yet make good stocks for winter, whereas, without this yield, they might not live through October. It fails about once in... An Experiment
Several years ago, I thought I had obtained a principle that would revolutionize the whole system of bee management. In 1840 I constructed such hives, and put in the bees to test by actual experiment, the utility of what seemed so very plausible in ... An Experiment
Notwithstanding all this, I cannot recommend making a _good_ stock better by adding the bees from another good one as a source of profit. I tried it a few times. I had purchased some large hives for market, and wished to dispose of the bees without ... An Experiment 2
In the spring of '47, I placed under five full hives, containing 2,000 solid or cubic inches, as many empty ones, the same size, without the top. I had a swarm from each; but two had added any new comb, and these but little. If these hives had been ... An Extra Quantity Of Pollen Not Always Detrimental
To test whether this extra quantity of bee-bread was so _very_ detrimental, I have introduced into such hive in the fall a family with a queen and wintered them in it, and watched their prosperity another year, and never found them less profitable o... Another Method Of Uniting Two Families
I have occasionally adopted yet another method of making a good stock from two poor ones, which the reader may prefer. When all your old stocks have been reinforced that need it, and you still have some swarms with too few bees and too little honey ... Another Time Preferred
There is but one period from February till October, when prosperous stocks are free from young brood in the combs. If combs are taken out when occupied, there must be a loss of all the young bees they contain; which may be avoided. The old queen lea... Answers Not Satisfactory
Had I no experience further than this, I should, perhaps, rest satisfied as to the cause, and should endeavor to apply the remedy. Several other writers have appeared in different papers, on this subject, and nearly all who assign a cause have given... Ants A Word In Their Favor
Ants come in for a share of condemnation. This little industrious insect shall have my endeavors for a fair hearing; I think I can understand why they are so frequently accused of robbing bees. Many bee-keepers are wholly ignorant, most of the time,... Apparent Contradiction When Feeding Causing Starvation
It is possible that feeding a stock of bees in spring, may cause them to starve! whereas, if let alone, they might escape. Notwithstanding this looks like a contradiction, I think it appears reasonable. Whenever the supply of honey is short, probabl...