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CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 1924 101 525 ««Q

BnUetin No. 33 April, 1921

THE
CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE
EXTENSION SERVICE
H. J. BAKER, Director
STORKS, CONN.

Cooperative Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics,

State of Connecticut, Connecticut Agricultural College
and U. S. Department of Agriculture cooperating.

SPRING MANAGEMENT OF BEES.

^..,_-^^ By L. B. Crandall
The queen bee is the most important individual in the

colony. We might almost say the queen is the colony. She lays
the eggs which produce all the members of her colony, even that
of her successor. If she is a strong, vigorous, Italian queen,
her colony will be strong and active. If she comes from a
strain that generally produces a large surplus crop of honey,
under good management her bees will be likely to produce
large crops of surplus honey. It is important, then, to see
that the queen in each colony is a good one.

Things to do Before Unpacking.

The first thing to do for the bees in the spring, is to ob-
serve their flight as an indication of their condition. If the
bees fly strong on pleasant daysi in spring, and are seen to
bring in pollen and to visit damp places for water, it is an in-
dication that the colony is in good condition.
Colonies which do not fly well and do not gather pollen,
and water when other colonies are doing it, are likely to be
weak and may be queenless. If your records show that such
colonies have old queens (more than two years old) you may
conclude that they are queenless. Such colonies should be
opened on the first warm day, soon after noon, and a careful in-
spection given. If no queen is found, and neither eggs or
brood, a new queen should be secured at once, or the colony
should be united with some strong colony.

Issued in Furtherance of the Acts of Congress of May 8 and fune jo, 1^14
2 THE COK>rECTICUr AGRICTJLTTJEAL COLLEGE EXTENSION SERVIOt!^'

Do not unite ty^; weak; colani^s,, but a; -^veak .9ne/with a

strong one ! A
weak.oojopjj.at this ;t;LTOe-oif year will have very
few young bees, so that t,w9-;\yeak polonies being united will be
but better able to build up than, one alone.
little

Bees seem to need a little salt when producing brood. It

is advisable to place within their reach a basin or shallow pan.

of dilute salt water as early in the spring as new pollen is

available. In order for the bees not to be drowned in this' so-
lution, it is necessary to put in the pan some planer shavings
orTjits of wood' which'will float so that the bees may ^li*ght dn
these and keep out of the water. Unless ;Salt is provided, the
bees will procure their supply from unsanitary sources.
If it is necessary to introduce new queens in the spring,
they must usually^ be ordered from the South. Northern
breeders cannot supply queens much before May 15, at least in
any quantity, so it is necessary to order them from southern
breeders early in the winter. The very best' time for several
reasons for introducing new queens is the August before, but
if this has not been done, and new queens are needed, they
should be secured by the first of May if possible.
It takes about two months for a colony to build up strong-
ly enough to get the most honey from any honey flow. In most
parts of C!onnecticut the main honey flow begins about June
—
10 from thetenth to the fifteenth in normal seasons. Count-
ing back two months from that time will give. Us A:pril 15 as
our starting point. In normal seasons, we should have our
colonies begin brood rearing for the first batch not later than
April 15. A
very prolific queen, backed by a strong force of
young bees, produce a good colpny after May 1, bjit it is
may
unusual to get a colony strong enough for maximuiji produc-
tion after that date. It will be evident, then, that it is much
better to have the queens well established in the colonies be-
fore spring opens. ,. ,
,

This is not to say that colonies which have queens intro-

duced after May 1 .will produjce no surplus honey .that sea-
son, but it is true that such colonies will produce but little from
the fiist Colonies which beigin build-
part of the clover flow.
ing up May
15, should get some surplus from sumac-, provided
sumac gives a good flow, but not from clover. Colonies which
are strong when new queens are introduced have a much better
chance than weak colonies under the same conditions.
 spring management of bees. 3

Spring Feeding.
If some of the colonies have come through the wiin;cr light
in stores, they should be fed before being unpacked. It is im-
portant that the winter protection be left on the hives through-
out the raw, changeable weather of April and early May.
Good honey which has been gathered and stored by the
bees, isalways the best food for them. This is especially true
of the spring brood rearing period. It seems that the best
granulated sugar syrup does not supply all the elements need-
ed by the developing brood. However, honey which is not the
best may be used for feeding at this time. That made from
trees, such as the Basswood, and honey containing honeydew
may be used in the spring, whereas it would not be the best
for winter. If the beekeeper has not laid aside some combs for
such an emergency, he can use syrup made by mixing equal
volumes of granulated sugar and hot water, stirring the liquid
until all the sugar has dissolved. Feed this hot in one of the
many feeders procurable on the market.*
In order for colonies to develop in the shortest time, they
must have an abundance of stores and large amounts of pol-
len. It takes a cell of honey to produce a cell of brood. It is
a fact that queens will not lay their maximum number of eggs
unless there is in the hives sufficient food to feed that amount
of brood. It is best then in feeding colonies to give all they
will need in one or two feedings and in the shortest time in
which the bees will take it. On this account it is desirable to
use more than one feeder for each colony.

Unpacking the Bees.

The time remove the packing materials is when fairly
to
settled weather has arrived in the spring. This will be usually
just before the fruit trees bloom in May. We get our first im-
portant honey flow from red maples. The bees will get a good
start from this stimulus so that when fruit bloom comes, they
should build up rapidly. It is necessary that we have free
access to the hives at this time so that we can manipulate the
colonies as needed.

*See Bulletin No. 21, Fall Feeding of Bees.

4 TIIE CONNECT! CUT AGRICUTjTUEAL COLLEGE EXTENSION SERVICE.

After the packing is removed, each colony should be

looked over carefully to ascertain its condition. We wish to
know whether each has sufficient stores, whether the queen is
laying well, whether she has all the room she needs, and wheth-
er there is any disease in the hives. The three essentials for ev-
ery colony at this time are stores, room, and frotection; of
which stores and room are of the most importance. Colonies
must have abundance of food or they cannot live and develop.
If they have abundance of food but have not room in which to
rear brood, they cannot become strong enough to produce sur-
plus honey. A
very common result of not providing room
enough at this time of year is to induce swarming. Bees can-
not cast swarms and produce surplus honey at the same time.

Building tjp Colonies in the Spring.

After the bees are taken out of winter quarters, they should
be provided with all the room they need for brood rearing. If
they were not wintered in two bodies, they should be given a
second body at this time. If the colony is strong in young bees,
it will make use of this second body very readily, but if it is

slow about using the extra room, it may be well to raise two or
three, frames of brood from the bottom body into the center of
the top one, in this way distributing the bees through both. A
good queen will easily occupy two ten-frame bodies, and some
extra good ones will do better than that. At this time of j'ear
an abundance of room for brood rearing is of great import-
ance, because we cannot get a large crop of honey without a
large force of field bees.

Disease Control.
It will be evident to every beekeeper after a little thought
that impossible to build up strong colonies if disease is
it is

killing off the brood. There are two brood diseases of bees
prevalent in this country that are of especial importance, call-
ed European and American Foulbrood.* These are both
very destructive and very contagious. European Foulbrood
gets in its most destructive work during the spring brood
rearing period, but American Foulbrood may be present in
 SPEING MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 5

the hive at any season of the year. No beekeeper can make

his colonies immune to these diseases, but he can do a great deal
to keep his yards so clean and sanitary and his colonies so
strong that it Pure
will be difficult for diseases to enter.
Italian stock seems to be more resistant to these diseases than
black or hybrid stocks; also some strains of Italians seem to
be more resistant than others. On this account it will pay ev-
ery beekeeper to have only healthy, resistant Italian bees in
his yards. Italian bees also have some other desirable traits,
such as, gentleness, less tendency to swarm, good nectar gath-
ering, and prolificacy in brood rearing, which make them the
most desirable race to keep.

SWAKMING.
Swarming is the satisfying of the instinct for reproduc-
tion. In studying swarming, we do not consider the bee as
an individual but the colony as the individual. When a colony
divides, or swarms, another individual has been produced. It
will be evident, then, that to control swarming we must com-
bat the natural instinct for reproduction. It is a difficult
problem. If bees were left to themselves, each colony would
cast one or more swarms each year. Bees cannot produce
surplus honey in any large amount and swarm, because the
honey which they would store if they did not swarm is used in
building new combs and in rearing brood. Colonies which are
prevented from swarming are the ones which produce the lar-
gest amounts of surplus honey, other things being equal. Our
object then as beekeepers is to prevent swarming so far as
possible, since our aim is the production of surplus honey.
According to our best knowledge up to the present time,
the chief cause of swarming is the over-production of young
bees, i. e. having more young bees emerging than there are
larvae to feed. The first work of the young bees after they
emerge from the cells is to feed the larvae and build new combs.
A good queen, backed by a strong force of young bees, will lay
between two and three thousand eggs per day during this
season of the year.

*See Farmers' Bulletins Nos. 975 and 1084.

6 THE CONNEOTIGUT AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE EXTENSION SERVICE.

Larvae have to be fed for six days, so it will be evident

thatit will not take long for more bees to emerge than there are

new larvae to feed. These nurses being well prepared by Na-

ture to produce baby food and build comb, and having neither
of these to do, become uneasy and begin queen cells in prepar-
ation for swarming. In from eight to ten days from this
time, unless the beekeeper prevents, we may expect a swarm.

What Takes Place When a Colony Swarms.

judge the effect swarming has on honey produc-
Tn order to
what takes place in the colony. One or two days
tion, let us see
before a colony swarms, most of the field bees which have
been bringing in nectar and pollen, stop working. These bees
remaining in the hive cause increased congestion. On the next
bright, warm day toward noon, a bee here and there will be-
come excited and start running through the hive; other bees
will start running with these and soon the whole colony will
;

be in an uproar. Suddenly this boiling, seething mass will

rush from the entrance and begin flying about in the air with
a roar which may be heard for some distance, and we say, "a
swarm is out." This swarm is made up of most of the field
bees, as many of the younger bees as can fly, part of the drones,
and the old queen. The bees fly about in a cloud for a few
minutes then begin to cluster on some tree or fence near by.
Nearly the entire working force of the colony has gone out,
leaving in the old hive the nurse bees, a few drones, and those
field bees which were in the field at the time the swarm issued.
There are also a number of queen cells more or less fully de-
veloped. In a day or two a new queen will emerge, and un-
less the swarm again soon, the bees will settle
colony plans to
down to building new colony.
up a
After the swarm is hived, it must draw out new combs,
produce a new batch of brood, gather new stores of honey and
pollen, and so gradually get back to storing strength. This
will take time, and in the meantime the beekeeper is gettin"'
no, or at most very little, surplus honey from this part of his
colony. The colony in the old hive must develop its queen to
laying age. must develop a new force of field workers and lay
 SPRING MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 7

in new supplies of pollen and honey before it can again pro-

duce surplus honey. This will take longer than for the swarm
since this colony has very few field bees left. From this dis-
cussion it will be evident that both parts of the original colony
will not store as much surplus as the old colony would have
done if it had not swarmed. It often happens that a colony
which swarms at the beginning of the honey flow will not
store any surplus from that flow, so it is best from the beekeep-
er's point of view to prevent swarming as far as possible.

SwAEM Prevention.
Mancannot make bees do as he wishes unless he adapts his
work to the natural instincts of the bees. In any attempt to
control swarming, then, we must provide conditions which will
be favorable toward honey production and away from queen
cell building. Colonies differ very much in the persistency
with which they carry out an idea. Some colonies will give up
the idea of swarming very readily while others will persist in
building queen cells in spite of all the beekeeper can do. Some
colonies in some seasons will give up preparations for swarm-
ing after the beekeeper has killed their queen cells once or
twice, while the next year, maybe, they will swarm out after
the cells have been cut out repeatedly. Usually, however, if
tlie beekeeper gives plenty of room in the brood nest and gives

a super or two before they really need them, he can keep most
of his colonies interested in storing honey.
If this method of cell killing is used as a swarm preven-
tive measure, the beekeeper will have to look through his col-
onies very carefuily every eight or ten days during the brood-
rearing period preceding the honey flow, and kill all the cells.
If he misses one, the colony will swarm. This method is very
tedious and is not always effective, so some other plan may
work better. A plan which provides conditions within the hive
very much like those under natural swarming is named after
the originator, the "Demaree Plan."
This, briefly, consists in raising all the frames of brood,
except one, together with all the young bees, into an upper
body, and confining the queen below under an excluder on this
 8 THE OONNKCriOUr AGJilCULTURAL COLLEGE EXTENSION SERVICE.

one frame. The with empty

extra space in both bodies is filled

combs or full sheets of foundation, or combs of honey taken

fi'OFi the other body. This change is usually made after it

becomes evident that the colony will not yield to simpler

methods. If nectar is coming in freely at the time this change
is made, ample room should be given by adding one or more

supers. It is important in using this plan to get all the young

bees out of the lower body where the queen is confined as they
ar.3 the cell builders. It may be necessary in order to get all
the young bees out of the lower body to shake the bees from it
into the upper body. If the lower body is not fastened to the
bottom board, it will be simpler to transfer the one frame of
brood and the queen to the new body and let that become the
bottom body. This plan produces conditions in the hive very
much lilte those under natural swarming, but without the con-
fusion and break in nectar gathering incident to it.
A. modification of this plan which seems to work a little
better, is to raise the body containing the brood above two su-
pers so as to separate the brood farther from the queen. With
extracted honey production this modified plan gives almost
perfect success, but under comb honey conditions it does not
work quite so well. The bees in the upper body will carry down
some of the dark comb from the brood frames and use it in
capping some of the sections. This of course damages the
sections, but would not injure the frames for extracted honey
There is no swarm prevention scheme which works sat-
isfactorily for comb honey production. Some plans work bet-
tti with some people than with others, so it is a matter for each

beekeeper to work out a plan of his own, or to adapt one of

thf suggested plans to his conditions. Probably the most ef-
fective check to swarming is to provide the bees at all times
a little more room than they can fill. Keep them hustling to
fill up empty room in the hive ! It is better to have an empty
super on tlie hives a week too soon rather than a day too late.

Proper Stjpering for Comb Honey.

Ta any honey production, the beekeeper should keep track
of the development of the flowers so as to know how fast the
 SPRING MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 9

nectar is coming in, and whether it is from one source or many.

It is especially important for the comb honey producer to
know when honey is coming, because it does not
his best light
pay to have any but the best honey put into sections. After
the first super has been put on, a careful watch should be kept
of the activity of the colony so that the second may be given in
time. It is best to give the second super as soon as the bees
are working well in the first. It is a mistake to wait until
most of the sections in one super are capped before adding an-
other, because the bees will be ready for the second some time
before they have begun to cap the first. Nectar is from 50% to
80^ water and this must he reduced to about 20^ water before
it is capped. This reduction is mainly brought about through
evaporation, and evaporation can most rapidly be produced in
a shallow container. When bees have conditions in the hive to
suit them they will fill the cells only part full at first and add
more as this evaporates and so continue until the cells are full.
T^Tien a new super of foundation is given to them, they draw
out a lot of the sections part way and use them for evapora-
tion chambers while they are drawing ovit some more. If only
one super is given and the second is not added until that one is
partly capped, the bees will be in need of new evaporating
space long before they get it.

It is usual in putting on new supers to add them next to

the brood nest so that they will be near where the young bees
are most plentiful, since these do most of the comb building.
In adding a third super it is the usual practice to put the sec-
ond on top, the first in the middle, and the third on the bottom,
next the brood nest. In this way the young bees are induced
to begin work on the new one and continue working on those
already started. This method holds good during the first half
of the honey flow, but as the flow begins to decline, the new
super should be placed on top of the others, because we do not
want the bees to start more than they can finish well, but we
do want them to have extra room if the honey flow lasts long-
er than we think it will. They will use this extra super if
they need it, but they will not enter it unless the flow keeps up

well after thev have filled the others.

10 the connecticut agricttltukal college extension service.

Proper Supering for Extracted Honey.

Bees will enter extracting supers more readily and work
in them better than they will in section supers, especially if
they contain drawn combs. On this account it is not such a
problem to get extracting supers accepted. If one has a few
colonies only, he may follow the same plan as for comb honey
supering. If he has a large number of colonies, and some
out-yards, it will be better to add several supers at once. Many
beekeepers who run scores of colonies, add all the supers which
they expect to need at the beginning of the honey flow. Prop-
er supering, in the final analysis, is a matter for each beekeep-
er to decide for himself, after taking into account all the fac-
tors which have any bearing upon the problem, viz., the weath-
er, the condition of the honey plants, the activity of the col-
onies, the strength of the colonies, etc.

Handling Natural Swarms so as to Get the Most Honey.

Where the beekeeper is working for honey production pri-
marily and cannot prevent swarming entirely, there are one or
two ways of handling the colonies to get the best results. The
one used most often with success is to move the old hive out
of the way a little after the swarm issues, turning the entrance
away, and to place a new hive exactly in the place occupied by
the other. Have the new hive filled with drawn combs if pos-
sible, but at least with full sheets of foundation. Shake or
smoke the swarm into a box or basket, and dump it in front of
the new hive and see that it gets started into the hive. After
all is quiet, turn the old hive a;bout so that the entrance points
in the same direction as the new, and leave them for ten days.
If the old hive had supers on it when the swarm came out, these
should be transferred to the swarm.
If conditions in the yard are such as to make it likely that
the virgin in the old hive will be well mated, the colony may
be allowed to produce its own queen, but it will make the col-
ony build up quicker to provide it with a laying queen. This
should be done soon after the swarm is hived, the queen cells
left in the old hive being cut out previously. At the end of ten
days the old hive may be taken to a new location and left to
 SPRING MANAGEMENT OE BEES. 11

build up into a new colony. If it is preferred not to have any

increase, after the swarm is hived, the cells may be cut out and
the old hive set over the new with an excluder between and
left to develop the brood. In this way all the brood will be
added to the colony and no increase made.
Another plan is to leave the old hive beside the new until
all the brood has emerged then shake the bees in front of the
;

new hive and take the old hive away. With this plan all queen
cells must be cut out at the time the swarm is hived and again
in ten days so as to keep the colony queenless.

Best Time to Make Incbease.

The best time to make increase is at swarming time or a
little later. If some of the colonies reach maximum strength
before the honey flow starts, they will begin to go backward
unless something done to keep up their interest in brood pro-
is

duction. good plan, if the beekeeper wishes increase,

It is a
to make up nuclei from these strong colonies, by taking frames
of brood and bees from them and giving these nuclei either
ripe queen cells or laying queens.
This plan may be used also in seasons when the honey
flow is delayed for any reason so that the colonies reach their
peak of production too soon. Another method is to keep the
colonies from building swarming cells as long as possible, but
those which persist in building queen cells should be treated by
the Demaree plan, and when queen cells in the upper body
are nearly ready to hatch, remove the upper body to a new lo-
cation and provide it with a laying queen or ripe cell from
some other stock if you do not wish to breed from that one.
In this way all the field force of the colony is kept together
for the honey harvest, but the brood and young bees, which
will not be old enough to gather much honey during that flow,
are used in making the increase.
Unless the beekeeper has had some experience in rearing
queens, and has such conditions in his locality that he can
breed true, it will be much better to buy queens from some-
reliable breeder. There is more or less damage to queens from,
being shipped long distances through the mails, so it is always,
best to procure queens from the nearest reliable breeder.
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