The Cycle of the Year 79 



of drones as causes of swarming. If these things are really 

 causes of swarming it is somewhat remarkable that the 

 application of remedies for these conditions are not more 

 serviceable in controlling swarming. 



The principle involved in swarm control and the differ- 

 ences in the amount and persistence of swarming observed 

 in different regions and under different systems of manipu- 

 lations indicate that swarming colonies have at least one 

 condition in common. While this condition may not be 

 the cause of swarming, it is at least interesting to study its 

 application. Gerstung advances the theory that swarming 

 is caused by the presence of too many young bees in the 

 hive. These bees, as will be discussed in a chapter to fol- 

 low, are those which feed the larvae and the usual supposi- 

 tion is that there is too much larval food prepared and that 

 the presence of this food in the nurse bees induces the build- 

 ing of queen cells and the rearing of queens. While this 

 effort at explaining the results of the presence of an unusual 

 number of young bees may be open to question, it may at 

 least be pointed out that swarming is always accompanied 

 by an unbalanced condition of the brood-chamber (not of 

 the hive) in regard to the age of the bees found there. If 

 the various preceding statements concerning swarming are 

 re-examined, it is seen that when swarming occurs normally 

 there is actually this unbalanced condition. In the north- 

 ern regions breeding reaches its maximum in a shorter time 

 than in the South and consequently as this brood emerges 

 the colony suddenly acquires an unusual number of young 

 adults. Where the season opens earlier this condition is 

 reached earlier (cf. southern and northern Indiana), while 

 in the South, where breeding increases more gradually, 

 this condition becomes less marked. Finally in the tropics 

 the preponderance of young bees does not occur unless 

 breeding is decreased by a dearth and begun again by a 

 rapid flow. Variation in seasons may cause either a more 

 gradual breeding in the North or a greater rapidity farther 

 south. This may explain the divergence in the experience 



