Returning A Part To The Old Stock
Categories:
SWARMING.
Bee Keeping:
Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained
Separate one-third or more of the two swarms, being sure there is no
queen with this part, (by the test given of setting them at a distance)
and then return them to one of the old stocks; they will immediately
enter without contention, and issue again in about nine days, or as
soon as a young queen is matured to go with them. There may be an
exception to this, of one in twenty. I would have recommended this
course in a
l cases of the kind, but there will be a loss of time for
the bees in the old stock; because they are apt to be rather idle, even
when they might labor in the boxes; and here there is a loss of some
eight or ten days. The collections of a good swarm may be estimated at
least one pound a day, (often two or three.) A swarm that just fills
the hive, would make at least ten pounds box-honey, if it could have
been located ten days earlier. Still another method may be adopted when
you have a very small swarm, one that is not likely to fill the hive,
and has not been hived more than two or three days. A third of your two
swarms may be put in with that; taking care, as before, not to let your
only queen go with them.