92 



AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE 



box" is held up amongst them. If a swarm has once entered it 

 there is not much trouble to induce others to do so again. I have 

 known a German bee-keeper use such boxes with s:reat success, 

 and as an additional attractive inducement pin a dead queen 

 therein. I have not proved that there are any virtues m the 

 latter to attract a swarm. 



I have mentioned in these pages several appliances in con- 

 nection with swarming. You will find that a box to shake them 

 into from the place wnere they first alight, and to remove them in 

 to their permanent home, the only thing really necessary, and 

 the catcher when the bees settle high in the trees. 



The advance swarms of the season are, almost without au ex- 

 ception, numerically strong, and give far more satisfaction to the 

 bee-keeper than late ones. As a rule, fairly early swarms will again 

 throw off swarms late in the season. The only way to obtain 

 strong swarms is to prepare for such in the previous autumn. 

 Put the bees up for the winter with all the adjuncts that will keep 

 that end in view. These adjuncts may be briefly summed up in 

 a few words : hives proof against cold and damp ; the swarm 

 strengthened to its uttermost ; and food supplied to carry them 

 well on to the spring. 



To accomplish this should be the aim of the bee-keeper at all 

 times. The only thing that will mar his success will be the sea- 

 sons. These he cannot control ; but all the adjuncts referred to 

 are in his power. 



Last-season's queens are more disposed to swarm, or are more 

 frequently seized with the swarming impulse, than are the second 

 swarms or casts. These are always accompanied by queens of the 

 season. It is these swarms that issue forth from the first swarms of 

 the season technically termed "maiden swarms" — that give the 

 bee-keeper a lot of trouble. It is not far to go to understand the 

 reason of these maiden swarms giving so much trouble. Queens 

 that come forth with the spring swarms are at the least from 

 eight to twelve inonths old. During the previous season these 

 queens laid eggs that produced female or working bees only. These 

 last year's queens are in a condition to lay drone-producing eggs. 

 The production of drones acts as a stimulus for queen production. 

 Where an old queen is liived in a bar-framed hive where founda- 

 tion-starters only are used, there will always be found a superabun- 

 dance of drone-cells constructed. With the second swarms or casts 

 it is not so. The combs built by these are constructed of small- 

 sized cells (workers'). 



