Mark The Date Of Swarms On The Hive
Categories:
LOSS OF QUEENS.
Bee Keeping:
Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained
Should you have so many stocks that you cannot remember the date of
each swarm without difficulty, it is a good plan to mark the date on
one side or corner of the hive, as it issues. You can then tell at once
where to look for a cell when wanted.
It will sometimes happen that a queen may be lost at the extreme end of
the swarming season, when no other stock contains such cells. I then
look around for the poorest stock or swarm that I have on hand, one
that I can afford to sacrifice, if it possesses a queen, to save the
one that has sustained this loss; this is not often the case, but is
sometimes. I have a few times put just bees enough with the queen to
keep her in a box, and kept them for this purpose, as was mentioned in
the last chapter. When introduced, the bees are generally killed, but
the queen is preserved.