Swarm Control. . 13 
do not have as large a proportion of young bees at any time as those 
which build up more rapidly. Thus, two colonies at the beginning of 
the honey-flow may be equally strong as to the number of bees but 
differ decidedly as to the average age of the bees and, other things 
being equal, the tendency to swarm is greater in the colony having 
the larger proportion of recently emerged and emerging bees. 
INFLUENCE OF YOUNG BEES. 
The fact that the tendency to swarm is greatest at about the 
time the bees are rearing the greatest amount of brood has led to the 
belief that swarming is caused by the presence in the hive of a large 
proportion of young bees not yet old enough for field work. ‘The 
measures in common use for the prevention of swarming tend to 
obviate this predominance of young bees or to relieve the crowded 
condition resulting from their presence within the brood-nest, and 
the successful remedies for swarming are those which correct this 
unbalanced condition in the population of the colony. Natural 
swarming itself removes the excess of young bees and brings about a 
condition in which none of the workers need be unemployed if there 
is a honey-flow. It is probable that the ‘bees too young to work in 
the fields contribute to the tendency to swarm by their persistence in 
remaining for several days within the brood-nest near where they 
emerged from the cells, instead of going to the more remote and less 
congested parts of the hive, and in this way they produce a crowded 
condition within the brood-nest. 
The sensation of strength in the colony is evidently not in pro- 
portion to the number of bees within the hive but depends largely 
upon their distribution. Even weak colonies may become crowded 
and swarm if most of the bees of the colony confine themselves to the 
small area occupied by brood, because this area is surrounded by 
sealed honey or imperfect combs, or because the more remote portions 
of the hive are so unattractive that the colony does not expand its ac- 
tivities beyond the brood area in proportion to the increasing numbers 
of oncoming young bees. On the other hand, a strong colony which 
rapidly expands its work into remote parts of the hive may apparently 
entirely escape the sensation of great strength because of the better 
distribution of the bees. 
The distribution of the young workers during the first two weeks of 
their lives when they are emerging at the rate of 3,000 or more per 
day undoubtedly has much to do with the tendency to swarm. It is, 
therefore, highly important that those parts of the hive outside of 
the brood area be attractive and easily available for the oncoming 
young bees, so that they will expand into and occupy the more remote 
portions of the hive instead of crowding the brood-nest. 
