THe JOURNAL 



or 



^fie department of Mgricufture 



VICTORIA. 



Vol. X. Part 11. 11th November, 1912. 



BEE-KEEPLXG IX VICTORIA. 



{Continued from Page 532.) 

 F. R. Beitline, Bee Ex-pert. 



IX. Swarming. 



Swarming i.s a natural impulse with bees, and the means of multiplying 

 the species. In Victoria it occurs from September till December, October 

 being the principal swarming month in most localities. 



In abnormal seasons, when copious rains succeed a period of drought, 

 swarming may take place a second time in January or February. 



To the beginner the issue of swarms is a source of delight, and the 

 most convenient way of increasing the number of his colonies. When, 

 however, stocks have increased to the number intended to be kept, or to 

 what the locality will carry with profit to the owner, then swarming be- 

 comes a trouble, involving a considerable amount of unprofitable work, 

 and unless it is counteracted by re-uniting of swarmed stocks may result in 

 the loss of all surplus honey. This is particularly so in districts having a 

 plentiful supply of pollen in spring and a honev flow in early summer only. 

 Taking as an illustration two colonies of equal strength, and assuming that 

 one swarms several times, and that the other does not swarm at all, the 

 worker force of the former is broken up into two, three, or more com- 

 munities, none of which is in a condition to store surplus honey for a 

 month or longer, because the parent colony is depleted of field bees by the 

 issue of one or more swarms. The voung queen, hatched after the swarm 

 left, does not commence to lay for fourteen to twenty-one days, and this 

 interruption in the succession of bee generations seriously affects the storing 

 ot honey later on, while every swarm put down in a separate hive has first 

 to build sufficient comb to fill the frames of the lower story, establish a 

 brood -nest, and accumulate stores before it is in a condition to store surplus 

 honey. This point, at whicti productiveness commences, is in some locali- 

 ties, such as the country surrounding Melbourne not reached till the main 



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