6 Farmers’ Bulletin 1198. 
The beekeeper’s problem at the beginning of the honey-flow is 
twofold: First, to prevent a division of the working force of the 
colonies; second, to stimulate the storing instinct to the utmost degree 
throughout the honey-flow. A division of the working forces or a 
subordination of the storing instinct at this time will cause a loss 
in the crop. Swarming can be prevented in many ways, but great 
care is necessary to avoid causing a subordination of the storing in- 
stinct, thus reducing the crop of honey, because the bees work with 
less vigor. 
In extracted honey production it is now possible practically to pre- 
vent swarming in certain regions where the character of the honey- 
flow, its duration, and the time of its occurrence with reference to 
the advancement of the season are such as to discourage swarming, 
but this is by no means true for all regions. In comb-honey produc- 
tion it is possible greatly to reduce swarming by modern swarm pre- 
ventive measures, but under some conditions in certain localities there 
are seasons when swarm control is still, as in the past, one of the 
greatest problems of the comb-honey producer. 
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE TENDENCY TO SWARM. 
Swarming is a fundamental instinct in the honeybee and can not 
be easily eliminated. Just what it is that»brings uppermost the 
swarming instinct when conditions are favorable is not positively 
known, but it is well known that certain factors contribute to the 
tendency to swarm, and if care is taken to prevent their development 
in the colony this tendency is greatly reduced. 
Colonies in the same apiary during the same season do not all 
behave alike as to swarming. Usually some colonies make no 
effort to swarm even during seasons when swarming is general; 
other colonies yield readily to ordinary preventive measures, while 
still others are so determined to swarm that gathering and storing 
are to a large extent subordinated until swarming is past. This 
variation may be partly due to a difference in hereditary charac- 
teristics and partly to a difference in the hives and the combs; but 
when these are nearly uniform throughout an apiary there is still a 
great variation in the tendency to swarm due to a difference in the 
distribution of the bees within the hive, a congestion of bees within 
the brood-nest being highly conducive to swarming while a distri- 
bution of the bees to parts of the hive other than the brood-nest, so 
that only enough bees are left there to care for the brood, usually 
results in no swarming. When young bees are emerging daily in 
great numbers, as during the spring brood-rearing period, they 
become the chief offenders in producing a congested condition within 
the brood-nest, on account of their habit of remaining on the brood- 
