BEES. Q7 
in bee keeping was the amount of increase by swarming, but this is 
now recognized as being quite the contrary of success. 
The stimulation of brood rearing in the spring, however, makes 
it more likely that swarming will occur; so that the operator must 
counteract that tendency. This is especially true in comb-honey 
production. Very few succeed in entirely preventing swarming, 
but by various methods the situation can be largely controlled. 
When a swarm issues, it usually first settles on a limb of a tree or 
bush near the apiary. It was formerly common to make a noise by 
beating pans or ringing bells in the belief that this causes the swarm 
to settle. There is no foundation for such action on the part of the 
bee keeper. If the bees light on a small limb that can be spared, 
it may simply be sawed off and the bees carried to the hive and 
thrown on a sheet or hive cover in front of the entrance. If the 
limb can not be cut, the swarm can be shaken off into a box or basket 
on a pole and hived. If the bees light on the trunk of a tree or in 
some inaccessible place, they can first be attracted away by a comb, 
preferably containing unsealed brood. In these manipulations it 
is not necessary to get all the bees, but if the queen is not with those 
which are put in the hive the bees will go into the air again and join 
the cluster. 
If a queen is clipped as recommended under ‘‘Spring management” 
(p. 24) the swarm will issue just the same, but the queen, not being 
able to fly, will simply wander about on the ground in front of the 
hive, where she can be caught and caged. The parent colony can 
then be removed to a new stand and a new hive put in its place. 
The bees will soon return and the queen can be freed among them 
as they enter. The field bees on returning will enter the new hive 
with the swarm, thus decreasing still more the parent colony and 
making a second swarm less probable. To make sure of this, how- 
ever, all queen cells except one good one can be removed soon after 
the swarm issues. To hold a swarm it is desirable to put one frame 
containing unsealed brood in the new hive. The other frames may 
contain full sheets or starters of foundation or drawn combs. Usually 
comb-honey supers or surplus bodies for extracting frames will have 
been put on before swarming occurs. These are given to the swarm on 
the old stand and separated from the brood chamber by queen- 
excluding perforated zine. 
When clipping the queen’s wing is not practiced, swarms may be 
prevented from leaving by the use of queen traps of perforated zine 
(fig. 6). These allow the workers to pass out, but not drones or 
queens, which, on leaving the entrance, pass up to an upper com- 
partment from which they can not return. These are also used 
for keeping undesirable drones from escaping, and the drones die 
of starvation. When a swarm issues from a hive provided with a 
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