17. Producing Comb Honey Without Swarming

Unless one learns to manage bees so they do not swarm he cannot succeed as a beekeeper. He should destroy any queen-cells found in the brood-chamber before placing on top the hive-body containing combs of honey or frames of wired foundation at fruit bloom time. If queen-cells are found, he should place some of the brood in the top hive-body. The giving of this extra hive-body, with plenty of room for the queen to lay, and honey to turn into bees, usually prevents congestion and delays the building of queen-cells till the nectar flow, three weeks later in the North.

Section honey.

The beekeeper must examine the combs for queen-cells every seven days till time for the nectar flow. They will usually be found along the bottom of the combs in the top hive-body. If any are found, he should lift out each of the frames and carefully examine for queen-cells on the sides of the combs and destroy all such cells found, mashing them with the hive tool.

To produce comb honey without swarming the following directions must be followed carefully: Three weeks after fruit bloom, when white clover secretes nectar, or at the time of the nectar flow when bees begin to whiten the cappings at the top of the brood combs, lift the hive to one side and place a bottom-board on the old location of the hive. On this bottom-board set an empty hive-body. Now take from the upper brood-chamber the two outside combs containing only honey and pollen and place them with adhering bees in the empty hive-body. Be sure the two combs do not contain eggs or young larvae. If they do the bees may make queen cells and swarm.

Between these two combs of honey and pollen, place four frames of wired foundation. Now place four dummies to fill out the empty space in the ten-frame hive. Dummies, are boards the thickness and size of brood-frames with quarter-inch strips nailed to the top and made to take the place of combs to restrict the size of the brood chamber.

If combs of scaled brood can be found, they may be used in place of the frames of foundation, only be sure they contain no eggs or worker larvae under three days of age. Larvae when three days of age fill the bottom of worker cells.

Having now filled the empty hive-body, place on it a queen- excluder and on the queen-excluder two supers containing either shallow-frames with full sheets of foundation or sections containing foundation. The bees will more readily work in the sections if some partly drawn out the year before-called "baits"-are in the center of the supers. Put on the cover.

Take the remaining 18 combs one by one from the old hive and, holding them in front of the new hive close to the entrance and low so that the queens will not be injured by the fall, jar or shake or brush all the bees from them.

It is well to place a newspaper, cloth, or board in front of the hive before shaking bees so that the bees can readily enter the hive and not get under the bottom board. It is not necessary to hunt for queens before shaking the bees with this method of management.

To shake bees, hold the frames on the fingers and throw the frames up against the ball or base of the thumb. Or hold the end of the top of the frame firmly with one hand and jar the bees off the frame by striking the hand holding the frame with the other hand. Or set a brick or stone in front of the hive and let one corner of the frame lightly strike the brick or stone to jar the bees off. Bees remaining on the combs can then be brushed off. If the nectar in the combs is very thin, it may be necessary to brush most of the bees from the combs in order to avoid spilling the nectar.

Set these combs in empty hive-bodies. Go to a weak colony and, after having placed a queen-excluder on it, set these combs on the queen-excluder. If they contain queen-cells, destroy the cells or use them later for making new colonies. One colony will care for four or five hive-bodies filled with brood. Such a colony is called a ''stack. "

Now jar all the bees, remaining on the hive from which the combs were taken, in front of the new hive. If the bees are smoked and given a few minutes to fill their nectar sacs before shaking, this artificial swarming can be done without a bee offering to sting. Use bee-gloves to keep bees from getting up your sleeves and tie the bottom of your trousers or use bicycle trouser-clips. Bees under the clothing will sting.

A colony so managed will not swarm. To produce comb honey we must crowd the bees into the supers and crowding bees causes them to swarm unless "shook. "

By restricting the brood-chamber with the four dummies we force all the nectar up into the supers. As fast as the bees draw out the foundation in the frames into combs, the queen will lay in the cells and the bees will build only worker-cells down to the bottom-bar. If the bees get ahead of the queen's laying, drone or storage cells will be built.

At the close of the honey flow, take out the four dummies, and from the "stack" of brood, now a "stack" of honey, take four combs of honey and place in the brood-chamber, thus giving the bees plenty of honey to build up for the fall honey flow or to rear bees for wintering. From the "stack" the bees can be supplied with plenty of honey for wintering, or the combs may be saved to place on the hives at fruit bloom, or the honey may be extracted.

Any queen-cells found should be destroyed when the brood is "stacked. " Eight days later these combs of brood should be examined and any queen-cells found destroyed or used in making more colonies of bees. After eight days the larvae are then too old for the bees to produce queens, and usually no queens will be reared below the queen-excluder where brood is ''stacked, " so the colony will not swarm.