652 



Jonnuil of Agriculture, Victoria. [ii Nov., 1912. 



rearing are laying, their colonies will not swarm the same season. Defective 

 and old queens should be replaced as soon as ripe queen cells are available. 

 In weak colonies the queen may be destroyed and a queen cell given at 

 the same time, the interruption of brood rearing can be made good by 

 gi\-ing a comb of brood a few days after the young queen hatched. If 

 the colony contains sufficient bees it may be divided into two on the same 

 stand, the old queen being kept laying in one till the young queen is laying 

 in the other, when the former may be removed and the two stocks united 

 by alternating the brood combs after smoking both. Uniting is best done 

 at or after sunset. 



Even when e\"erything possible has been done to discourage swarming, 

 there will be a number of swarms, but they will be larger (Fig. 2) than 

 they would have been had che colonies swarmed earlier. Examining the 

 hives once a week and destroving any queen cells that are found will, to 



some extent, prevent 

 swarming or, at any 

 rate, delav it. How- 

 ever, unless the bees 

 are shaken off the 

 brood combs e\"ery 

 time, a small queen 

 cell on the face of the 

 comb, or one well 

 covered with newly- 

 built comb, is very 

 likely to be over- 

 looked and, if condi- 

 tions continue favor- 

 able, colonies which 

 have been thwarted 

 will often swarm with- 

 out having built cells. 

 Taking into account 

 the trouble involved 

 by a careful weekly 

 examination and the 

 risk of failing to pre- 

 vent swarming, it will 

 be found best to allow 



FIG. 2. A LARGE SWARM, lO LBS. 



45,000 BEES. 



OR ABOUT 



the swarm to come off and, if no increase but a yield of honey is desired, to 

 re-unite the swarm and the parent colony. This is done in' the following 

 manner: — When the swarm has issued and clustered somew'here, hive it in 

 a new box on a set of wired frames with starters on the spot occupied by 

 the hive from which it came; remove the latter a little to one side, with 

 the entrance facing at right angles to its former position. All flying bees 

 remaining in the parent stock, on returning from the fields, will join the 

 swarm, because they will return to the spot they are used to. The swarmed 

 colony will thus be so depleted of flying bees that usuallv the first virgin 

 queen which hatches from one of the cells will be allowed by the bees to 

 destroy the remaining queen cells. To make sure, however, that no after- 

 swarms come off, it is best to examine the stocks within a day or two and 

 destroy all the queen cells except one, selecting for the purpose one of the 

 largest and most forward in development. In from fourteen to twenty-one 



