280 Beekeeping 



geous not to attempt to use remedial measures until neces- 

 sary. 



In the literature on swarm control, there are dozens of 

 plans for accomplishing this end, and it is neither desirable 

 nor necessary to give all of them or even all of the successful 

 ones, for to attempt to do so would only be confusing. 



Unbalanced condition of swarming colonies. 



If the conditions which are found in natural swarming are 

 examined, it will be recalled that, after the swarm issues, it 

 receives no additional young bees for a period of at least 21 

 days (unless they are given by the beekeeper in accordance 

 with some of the plans previously outlined). If, as seems 

 not unlikely, one of the most important factors in the cause 

 of swarming is a preponderance of young bees, this condition 

 is rectified for the swarm and the bees become "satisfied." 

 On the other hand, the parent colony rapidly increases the 

 percentage of young bees (unless, again, they are removed 

 by the beekeeper) and after-swarms are not uncommon, 

 unless the beekeeper manipulates to prevent them. It thus 

 appears that the restoration of the balance of the colony is 

 important in bringing it to a condition in which the swarm- 

 ing tendency is lost and in which the storing instinct becomes 

 dominant. 



Break in the emergence of brood. 



Whether this speculation is justified must be determined 

 by future investigations, which are greatly needed. At any 

 rate, and this is the point of importance to the beekeeper, 

 those practical manipulations which are successful in the 

 control of swarming, whether applied before or after queen 

 cells are built, have for their result a single factor in common 

 a reduction or temporary cessation in the continuity of 

 the daily emergence of brood. There have been numerous 

 discussions of the principles of swarm control, for this is a 

 problem which has attracted the attention of modern bee- 

 keepers to a marked extent, but so far as the author is aware 



