44 Farmers’ Bulletin 1198. 
days the original hive may be restored to its former position 
(fig. 18, C) and the bees of the queenless portion shaken from their 
combs back into the original hive, thus reuniting the colony. 
These cases may be useful near the close of the season or at any 
time if the tendency to swarm is not great, but neither of them can 
be depended upon during the height of the swarming season, for 
the conditions which were present previous to preparations for 
swarming are soon restored under this treatment. 
THE CAUSE OF SWARMING. 
While the cause of swarming has not been definitely determined, 
the one factor which is universally present in normal swarming is 
Fic. 13.—Method for inducing bees to destroy queencells and give up swarming. A, Col- 
ony preparing to swarm. B, Hive (2) containing two frames of brood (some of which 
is unsealed) is substituted for the original hive (1), which is now placed on top, no 
communication between hives 1 and 2 being permitted. 0, Hive 2 is removed after a 
week or ten days and hive 7 is restored to its former position. 
that of a congestion of bees within the brood-nest. Other factors 
often mentioned as causing swarming are not universally present. 
Such a congestion of bees within the brood-nest is usually brought 
about by a preponderance of recently emerged and emerging young 
bees, but the effect of such crowding may be greatly intensified by 
numerous factors in the environment, not universally present, which 
may be considered as contributing factors, but not causal. Whether a 
preponderance of bees too young for outside work or some other 
factor is responsible for swarming, this theory forms a good working 
hypothesis, since the successful preventive measures are those which 
reduce the congestion or alleviate its effects, and the successful cor- 
rective measures are those by which the balance in the proportion 
of hive bees and field bees is restored. In natural swarming as well 
