THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



89 



pulse to swarm. Cutting out of the 

 brood will stop all swarming- It seems 

 to require a heroic remedy to put a 

 quietus on the swarming habit. 



Instinct teaches the bee that its very 

 existence depends upon a prolific queen 

 and a well regulated and ample brood 

 nest. As long as these conditions are 

 present the colony works on in content- 

 ment, but as soon as the brood nest be- 

 comes crowded and there is no place for 

 the queen to deposit her eggs, instinct 

 teaches the bee that its existence is 

 imperiled, and they become discouraged 

 and swarm out to establish a new home. 

 If the brood nest should sustain an 

 injury in any way Nature teaches the 

 bee to repair it at once. These instincts 

 seem to be inborn and a part of the very 

 nature of the bee. It appears reasonable 

 to me that uncapping the brood would 

 have about the same effect upon the bee 

 in regard to its swarming out as we 

 would be affected if we had made 

 preparations for a journey and some 

 giant would come along, tear the roof 

 off from over our heads, destroy our 

 furniture, kill our babies, and raise cain 

 generally. Our desire to travel would be 

 squelched forthwith, and we would stay 

 at home the same as the bees do. We 

 might start in at once to repair the 

 damage done to our home or we might 

 give up in despair. Bee nature being 

 built along different lines, at once ap- 

 plies itself to the wreck, and starts to 

 repair the damage to its home. The 

 dead are carried out, the cells are cleaned 

 up and the queen has ample room to lay 

 again. Everything in the economy of the 

 hive goes on as before, the bees having 

 no desire to swarm until the brood nest 

 again becomes crowded, when Nature 

 again asserts itself and they once more 

 begin to make preparations to swarm. 

 But the bees' thoughts are not my 

 thoughts, neither are my thoughts the 

 bees' thoughts, so if 1 have not interpreted 

 their actions aright you have the privi- 

 lege of giving a better explanation. One 

 guess is as good as another as long as it 

 cannot be demonstrated to a mathemati- 

 cal certainty. Admitting that bees do 

 freak things at times, is it not a con- 

 ceded fact that a colony of bees under 

 normal conditions will not make prepara- 

 tions to swarm as long as the queen has 

 ample room in the brood nest to deposit 

 her eggs? And is it not also an established 

 fact that when the brood nest becomes 

 congested and the queen is restricted in 

 her egg-laying, that then, and not until 

 then, does the swarming instinct assert 

 itself? Examinations of a colony prior 



to swarming when queen cells are under 

 way shows the outside combs full of 

 sealed brood, eggs and larva, with honey 

 in top and corners of center frames, the 

 sealed b'ood predominating in the outer 

 frames of the brood nest proper, and open 

 brood in the center, and nearly every 

 cell filled with honey, pollen or brood and 

 no room for the queen to lay — an ideal 

 condition to cause the bees to become 

 discontented. Bees thrown into an ab- 

 normal condition will often swarm out; 

 starvation swarms, colonies infested with 

 worms and with their combs a mass of 

 web, shaken swarms that have been 

 bumped and banged and shaken out and 

 compelled to establish themselves in a 

 new hom.e, thinking their condition could 

 not be worse, in their discouragement 

 swarm, and light out for pastures new. 

 The condition of the brood nest cuts no 

 figure with them, but be it remembered 

 that they have been thrown into an 

 abnormal condition, and the vagaries of 

 bee nature under abnormal conditions is 

 past comprehension. Given all other 

 conditions that lead to swarming, minus 

 a crowded brood nest, and there is no 

 swarming. Natural swarming, shook 

 swarming, caging the queen, all have as 

 their underlying principle and do directly 

 or indirectly relieve the congested condi- 

 tion of the brood nest. The Aspinwall 

 non-swarming hive has as its leading 

 feature the prevention of swarming by 

 breaking up the solid brood nest. That 

 is the one feature common to all methods 

 of swarm-control. It resolves itself into 

 what is the simplest, surest and safest 

 method of accomplishing this end. As 

 an easy, sure method, the uncapping 

 brood plan stands in a class by itself. 



Some of my bee keeping friends have 

 requested that 1 give the steps that led 

 up to the discovery of the treatment 

 herein outlined. Being somewhat in 

 doubt as to its being of sufficient interest 

 to the reader, and also thinking that it 

 might take up more space than this little 

 booklet would warrant, my first impulse 

 was to decline, but finally decided to 

 give the details as briefly as possible. 

 In order to do so will have to refer a 

 little to "ancient history." I engaged in 

 bee keeping on a small scale away back 

 in the "seventies." Found the pursuit 

 extremely fascinating, and soon had a 

 bad case of "bee fever', on my hands. 

 My enthusiasm did not develop into a 

 mania for inventing a hive as is usually 

 the case with beginners. In 1878 one 

 colony was worked for comb honey, and 

 the proceeds of that one hive netted thirty 

 dollars. Kept them from swarming by 



