72 Beekeeping 



often cluster without a queen, they are fleet on the wing, 

 they may fly directly to the woods without clustering and 

 they cannot be accurately foretold, as can a first swarm, 

 when the queen cells are of value as a forewarning. 



Activity of swarms. 



It is often maintained that the bees in a swarm work 

 with greater vigor than those which have not swarmed. 

 While this cannot be accepted without qualification, there 

 are certain activities which are more in evidence at this 

 time. Wax secretion is apparently carried on more readily 

 than under other conditions, and if nectar is available the 

 bees may be so manipulated that a large amount of surplus 

 honey is obtained. To take advantage of the supposedly 

 increased activity of the swarm, the same conditions are 

 partially induced artificially in various manipulations. 

 The effect of swarming on egg-laying has been mentioned. 

 It is probable that the supposed vigor of swarms is due not 

 so much to the accomplishment of more work as to the 

 diverting of the labor of the colony into lines which are 

 more conspicuous to the beekeeper. It will be shown 

 later that colonies which swarm produce less honey than 

 those which make no effort to swarm. 



Swarming conditions induced artificially. 



While so-called artificial swarms are a part of the practical 

 manipulations to be discussed in later chapters, it may be 

 of interest to record some attempts at producing swarming 

 conditions which throw some light on the natural phe- 

 nomenon. During the summers of 1912 and 1913, the 

 author was interested in the taking of motion pictures of 

 bee activities. In the first season, Fortune favored the 

 project by permitting the use of a natural swarm, which 

 was, however, artificially delayed until the camera was ad- 

 justed. In all cases the clustering was produced artificially. 

 In the first case, a swarm issued on a Thursday morning 

 and the queen was caught, caged and placed in the second 



