SWARMING. 



419 



SWARMING. 



NEVER AL,L,OW BEES TO HANG OUTSIDE 

 THE HIVE. 



One of our swarms hung outside the hive 

 during a great honey-harvest; and as it is no 

 unusual thing for a colony to store 10 lbs. a 

 day during the height of the season, they 

 may have lost 100 lbs. of honey, for the 

 swarm was an unusually fine and strong one. 

 They might easily have secured this amount 

 if they had worked, but it is by no means 

 certain that they could have been made to 

 go to work as they did after they swarmed 

 and were put into a new hive. Within two 

 or three weeks after they swarmed, if we re- 

 member, they filled their hive and gave about 

 2-5 lbs. of surplus. How shall we deal with 

 such bi'^esV 



This clustering-out may be caused by the 

 fact that the bees need room. In that case, I 



A FIXE SYMMETKICAL SWARM WITHIN EASY REACH 



obviously, an extracting or comb -honey 

 super should be placed on top; for where 

 bees get into the habit of loafing it becomes 

 a little hard to get them to go up into the 

 supers. In such c.ise we advise giving the 

 bees a section or two of foundation partly 

 drawn out, as previously explained under 

 Comb Honey. We would at the same time 

 also enlarge the entrance. Set tlie hive up 

 on lour blocks I inch thick, as sliown under 

 Entrances, and further on under this 

 head, sub-head Control of Swarming bv 



MEANS of Large or Plural Entrances. 

 This will leave an open space all around the 

 hive, but that will do no harm. If the pri- 

 mary cause of the bees clustering out in the 

 first place is lack of ventilation, or too great 

 heat, this raising- up of the hive will cause 

 the bees to go in, and possibly prevent 

 swarming. 



swarming modified by^ localiiy. 

 The commencement of the swarming sea- 

 son varies, of course, according to the local- 

 ity, and it may be said that the swarming 

 propensity itself is modified very materially 

 also by the same cause. In places where the 

 honey-flow is very heavy and continues so 

 for some time, swarming seems to be check- 

 ed, for the bees are all intent on gather- 

 ing honey. Indeed, they have no time to 

 waste on such foolishness. In such local- 

 ities the swarming sea- 

 son comes on when the 

 first or light honey- 

 flow begins, and contin- 

 ues so long as it is light; 

 but just as soon as the 

 secretion of nectar gets 

 heavy then just that 

 soon swarming stops. 



It sometimes happens 

 that a bee-keeper resid- 

 ing in one of these local- 

 ities wonders why his 

 brethren in the craft 

 make so much fuss in 

 the bee journals about 

 swarm control when he 

 has . no trouble from 

 that source at all. The 

 other fellow, on the 

 other hand, can not un- 

 derstand how the first- 

 mentioned bee - keeper 

 can perform certain 

 manipulations with his 

 bees, and not have ex- 

 cessive swarming. In 

 reading the following 

 pages treating on this general subject one 

 must bear in mind this question of locality. 

 It should, therefore, be said that much of 

 the matter that follows relates to conditions 

 as we generally find them in the Northern 

 States, and not as they are found in parts of 

 Texas, California, and some portions of the 

 tropics. In these localities there may or may 

 not be swarming. On the other hand, the 

 bee-keeper encourages it to a certain extent; 

 and when he wishes it to cease by reason of 

 the heavy honey-fiow it stops naturally. 



