650 Journal of Agriculture, Victona. [11 Nov., 1912. 



honey flow is practically over, and for the remainder of the season the bees 

 are only able to gather sufficient to maintain themselves, and sometimes not 

 enough to last them through the winter. In the following season the 

 colonies which survived will again undergo division by swarming, little or 

 no honey will be obtained, and the owner will come to the conclusion that 

 bees are not profitable in his locality. It should be understood that in- 

 crease of colonies always takes place at the expense of honey production, 

 except in exceptionally good bee-country, with a late honey flow ; but in 

 passing it may be mentioned that in Spring bees are as much a saleable 

 commodity as honey, that apiarists in the best honey districts of the 

 State purchase swarms in large numbers, and that in localities better suited 

 to the breeding of bees than the production of honey better profits may 

 be obtained by the sale of bees than of honey. 



Taking now the case of a colony which does not swarm at all, although 

 ot the same strength as another one which does, it will be seen that as the 

 laying queen remains in the hive there is no interruption in the rearing of 

 bees, and as all the work which is done by swarms during the first three 

 or fours weeks is done by bees which come from the parent colony, it follows 

 that when the total worker-force remains in the parent hive whatever 

 would be needed in the establishment of the new colonies is available as 

 surplus ; in other words, the nectar available in the fiora of the locality is, 

 in one instance, turned into surplus honey for the benefit of the owner of 

 the bees, and in the other into more bees which cannot do more than exist 

 for the remainder of the season. 



What has been said so far does not apply to the best honey districts of 

 this State where the honey flow is heavy, and more or less continuous for 

 the greater part of Spring, Summer, and Autumn ; but even when the limit 

 to increase is one of labour and material rather than of sources of nectar 

 it is found more profitable to have the same total force of bees in a lesser 

 number of colonies. More surplus can be obtained from one colony contain- 

 ing 30,000 bees than from two containing 15,000 each, because the number 

 necessary to attend to dome.stic work such as the rearing of brood, carry- 

 ing water, &c., is practically the same in the smaller as in the larger 

 colony, the latter has therefore a much larger number of bees available for 

 the gathering of nectar and is less influenced bv changes of temperature. 



The prevention or control of swarming is one of the most diflUcult 

 problems of bee culture. Systematic efi'orts to eliminate the swarming 

 impulse by breeding all queens from the mothers of non-swarming stocks 

 have so far only resulted in reducing the percentage of swarming, owing to 

 the inability of queen breeders to control the mating of the sexes as is 

 done in the case of animals and birds. Beekeepers are therefore compelled 

 to confine their efforts to cope with the swarming problem to the removal of 

 contributing causes and to counteracting the eff"ects which swarming has 

 on honey production. Apart from the natural impul.s.e, which is much 

 stronger in some races, .some strains, and even some individual colonies 

 of bees than in others, climate, season, and flora have great influence upon 

 the swarming propensity. These are factors beyond the control of the 

 beekeeper ; there are, however, others which mav' be controlled, more or 

 less, and excessive swarming prevented thereby. The principal inducements 

 for bees to swarm are — 



1. A crowded condition of the bees. 



2. The presence of large numbers of drones. 



3. An old or failing queen. 



