•94 AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE- 



ance, and devouring food that would be far better used in the 

 rearing of workers. All this can be prevented by getting rid of 

 drone-laying queens. The early spring swarms are always 



accompanied by a drone-laying queen, and she will very soon com- 

 mence her drone- laying proclivities. Here you will see the 

 necessity of trying your apprentice hand at queen raising. As 

 early as the season will admit, have an overplus of young laying 

 queens on hand, ready to replace the queen that accompanied 

 the first swarm. This is the first and most important mechanical 

 aid to prevent swarming. The second is like unto it, but not 

 nearly so effective. A queen develops from egg to maturity some 

 five days sooner than the worker ; therefore, about every fourteen 

 ■days take out and examine every comb for constructing queen 

 cell, or developing queens, and destroy them. A keen knife will 

 do it. I always use my finger and thumb and pinch them out. 



If, from any cause, you may have been unable to procure 

 young laying queens (although they are always to be procured 

 from dealers in season, and almost out of season), or to examine the 

 combs for queen cells, there are almost sure to be late swarms to deal 

 with. This country is one of the most likely in the world to pro- 

 duce casts and after-swarms, and these are the ones that will give 

 you trouble. In all probability, when they rush from the hive 

 they will go further afield than the spring swarm, before they 

 settle; in fact, it is these swarms that become the vagabonds, and 

 are found hanging on fences and elsewhere about Christmas time. 

 One of the first swarms of bees I ever saw on the wing was one 

 of these vagabonds, high up in the air and hurrying across ai 

 meadow. I tried to follow, but a wide and deep brook stopped me. 

 In these early days of my bee-keeping exiperience, well do I re- 

 member tin kettling — ringing them down we called it— tEe bees 

 attempting to settle first here and there, and, finally, nowhere ; 

 while they suddenly took it into their heads to alter their course, 

 rapidly gathered together, were soon lost to sight, and it was good- 

 bye to my swarm. It is this peculiar trait in their character 

 that gives all the trouble. These thousands of bees that escape 

 in this way are so much loss to the colony they came from. If 

 they can be kept in the hive it means more extracting for the bee- 

 keeper. The prevention of these casts means having a strong 

 colony through the winter ; and a strong colony through the 

 winter means a strong early swarm in the following spring. How 

 can we keep them at home? Even this cannot always be done. 



