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GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



Swarming Time 



H. W. SANDERS 



THE swann is a phenomenon peculiar to bees. 

 There are other insects that are sociable but 

 these have certain periods in their life history in 

 which the life of the colony is suspended and it is gen- 

 erally during these alternative periods that the natural 

 increase takes place. With the honey-bee, however, 

 the entire cycle of operation is passed in the com- 

 munity form, and therefore bees have to make their 

 increase by a colony splitting into a number of sepa- 

 rate swarms. Under natural conditions swarming is 

 the only manner in which bees can perpetuate their 

 species, for a certain number of colonies die each Win- 

 ter, or from disease and but for the number of new- 

 swarms emerging they would have long ago become 

 extinct. 



Swarming is marked by the most remarkable ex- 

 hibitions of instinct in the life of a colony. We know 

 that by the time the season is far enough advanced 

 for swarming to take place, that all the bees from 

 the season before have come to the end of their lives, 

 and although the queen-bee may be the same one 

 who went into Winter quarters the course of events 

 is the same even if a young queen of the season's 

 rearing be the hive mother. Here it may be said that 

 with a young queen swarm control is easier in actual 

 practice, the point that we wish to make being that 

 the process of swarming is in no way dependant upon 

 the previous history of the colony. It may never have 

 swarmed before, or it may have swarmed several times 

 the previous season, but still, the preparations are 

 made in exactly the same way, and the swarm issues 

 and behaves as all swarms do and can be controlled in 

 the same manner. 



A strong colony of bees build up very rapidly in the 

 Spring'. From the time when they come out of their 

 Winter quarters, until the lirst flowers begin to yield 

 honey, the bees raise thousands of young ones, the 

 process of which consumes the remainder of the stores 

 of honey laid by during the previous season. Wlien 

 the honey begins to come in in any quantity, which 

 in the Northern States occurs at the end of May or 

 the beginning of June, the bees are beginning to feel 

 rather crowded, and it is this crowded condition that 

 constitutes the most obvious stimulus to swarming. 

 The amount of ventilation possible, depending upon 

 the size of the entrance, is also a factor in the case, 

 but the subject is not thoroughly understood and bees 

 will swarm, or will refrain from swarming at times 

 in quite an incomprehensible manner. 



The actual process is interesting. The bees begin 

 by starting queen-cells at various places in the hive. 

 These cells are the same as those made to supersede a 

 laying queen, but are more numerous, and are built 

 over worker larvae or eggs. About eight or ten days 

 after the cells have been started a swarm may be ex- 

 pected, and for a few days previous to its emergence 

 the normal activities of the hive are to a large extent 

 suspended. The bees "loaf." as beekeepers says, and 

 if the weather is at all warm they hang outside in 

 great bunches. The queen quits laying eggs, so that 

 she may be the better able to endure the long flight 

 to her new home, and the bees send out scouts to 

 search out a new place for the swarm to begin their 

 housekeeping. It may be a hollow tree, a cleft in 

 rocks, the chimney of a vacant house, or some such 

 place, but there is no doubt that the scouts identify it 



for the swarm always flies straight to its new home. 

 A neighbor of our last season found a number of bees 

 exploring a drain that was placed to carry the water 

 from a sleeping porch, and sure enough two days later 

 a large swarm arrived and took possession. A near- 

 by beekeeper smoked them out and hived them before 

 they had made themselves too much at home. 



Finally upon a warm day, usually in the morning, a 

 mass of bees rushes violently out of the hive, and 

 after circling wildly in the air for a time they cluster 

 on the branch of a tree, or a post or any convenient 

 place. The queen is usually amongst the last to leave 

 and her presence is necessary before the swarm will 

 continue on its way. If by any chance she gets lost 

 the bees will return to the hive from which they came. 

 This fact is made use of in some of the plans for deal- 

 ing with swarming and by clipping the queen's wings 

 the loss of a swarm is avoided. It is a notable and 

 beautiful sight to see a swarm emerge, and for a few 

 moments the air seems to be full of bees with flashing 

 wings, whilst the sound can be heard at a considerable 

 distance. Our own bees are located quite a little dis- 

 tance from the house, yet we have been on some oc- 

 casions apprised of the swarm by heari_iig the loud 

 humming from indoors. 



The swarm may hang clustered for a few minutes 

 only, or for several hours — indeed cases are on record 

 where the bees actually built their combs in the open 

 and remained. One is tempted to wonder whether 

 these swarms issued without the scouts having found 

 a suitable place or if not. just what the stimulus is 

 that makes the bees break cluster and decamp. How- 

 ever, the fact is that they will, sooner or later, take 

 wing and fly across the country to their chosen desti- 

 nation. 



It is during this clustering period that the bees may 

 be hived. W^e shall be giving more explicit directions 

 in subsequent months, but in brief, the hiving process 

 consists of shaking the bees in front of a suitable hive. 

 As soon as ever some of them begin to go in the rest 

 will follow and usually they will remain without 

 trouble. 



A swarm of bees is usually very good-tempered, due 

 to the individual bees having filled themselves with 

 honey in preparation for the migration^a condition in 

 which bees seldom use their stings. We have handled 

 swarms by taking the masses of bees in the bare hands 

 and placing them in a hive. Shaking them in front will 

 however usually accomplish the desired end and the 

 bees will soon be hard at work gathering honey. 



Bird Houses for the Garden 



There is a very close connection between birds and 

 seeds, or at least between birds and the successful 

 growing of plants. They are one of man's best allies 

 in the war against insect life of every description, 

 and their presence should be assiduously cultivated. A 

 bird house not only attracts them but it is in itself 

 a vcrv picturesque adjunct to a garden. 



"S'liu have communed with great men to little pur- 

 pose if you have not learned that, however else they 

 may have dift'ered, in one respect they are all alike. 

 Their sinews grew bv labor. — John McClintock. 



