34 Farmers’ Bulletin 1198. 
preparations are being made for swarming. Much will depend upon 
circumstances as to which of these plans is more desirable. The un- 
certainty of weather conditions during the early honey-flow in many 
parts of the country makes it difficult in comb-honey production to 
devise any system that will work out advantageously year after 
year by which all the colonies can be treated at the same time. In 
extracted-honey production, however, this may well be done. 
If the plan of examining each colony for queencells once a week 
is to be carried out, the queencells in colonies which contain only 
eggs or small larve are destroyed, since some colonies will give up 
swarming when this is done. If the queencells are well advanced 
containing large larve, the colony should be treated at once, since 
the removal of such queencells can not be expected to deter swarm- 
ing. When destroying newly started queencells in this way most 
of the bees should be shaken from the combs as they are examined, 
to be sure that none are missed, since if but one queencell is left 
the destruction of the remainder of the cells would have no effect 
upon the preparations for swarming. | 
The methods given in the following paragraphs are illustrative 
of different types of remedial measures. The various methods here 
outlined are by no means equally suitable for every locality or every 
season in a given locality. It is necessary for each beekeeper to 
work out a system for swarm control to meet the requirements of his 
particular locality and season. The underlying principles, how- 
ever, are the same throughout the multitude of methods, and the 
following outlines are given to illustrate the principles involved, 
rather than to indicate definite systems to be followed. . 
CREATING CONDITIONS COMPARABLE TO THE SWARM.’ 
1. Shake the bees from their brood-combs back into the brood- 
chamber, placing the combs of brood in an extra hive body as the 
bees are shaken from them and putting in their places frames of 
foundation and one empty comb, or whatever is to be used in estab- 
lishing the new brood-nest as in hiving swarms (p. 29). To avoid 
the necessity of finding the queen, the combs should be shaken or 
brushed sufficiently free of bees to insure that the queen is left in 
the hive when the brood is all taken away. If extracted honey is 
being produced, put a queen-excluder over the brood-chamber, 
replace the supers, and finally place the hive body now containing 
the removed brood on top as though it were an additional super, 
2 Colonies that are building queencells in preparation for supersedure should not be sub- 
jected to this treatment, but the failing queen should be removed, the queencells de- 
stroyed, and the colony treated as a parent colony (p. 39). Such colonies can be distin- 
guished from normal colonies which are preparing to swarm by the imperfect work of 
the queen, the smaller number of queencells, and the general condition of the colony as 
to population and proportion of emerging bees. 
