CHAPTER XV 

 SWARM CONTROL AND INCREASE 



AT the close of the chapter on the manipulation of bees, 

 it is pointed out that success in honey-production depends 

 (1) on getting bees in time for the harvest and (2) on keeping 

 them in the proper condition for storing. The first require- 

 ment is discussed in the chapter immediately preceding. 

 However, if a colony of bees builds up rapidly to full strength, 

 the beekeeper is confronted by the problem of preventing it 

 from dividing its forces, thereby causing him to fail in get- 

 ting the maximum crop, or even to get no surplus from it. 

 This second problem is mainly involved in swarm control, 

 but also includes the providing of other conditions favorable 

 for storing. 



Loss from division of the working force. 



In the days of the box-hive, success in beekeeping was 

 measured by the number of swarms that issued, but the 

 beekeeper now knows that he cannot increase the number 

 of his colonies during a honey-flow without curtailing his 

 crop, unless the increase is made from brood that would 

 emerge too late for the resulting bees to assist in gathering 

 nectar. Success in manipulation is now measured by the 

 results the beekeeper attains in preventing swarming. If 

 swarms issue, as they will at times in spite of every known 

 precaution, the beekeeper then aims to use the bees so as 

 still to keep them together and thus to overcome the danger 

 of a reduced crop. Because the experienced beekeeper so 

 well knows that swarming endangers his crop and also that 

 Bwarms may be lost, the usual statements concerning the 



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