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40th YEAR 



CHICAGO, ILL, MAY 31, 1900, 



No, 22. 



Natural or Artificial Swarms — Which ? 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



THIS question, asktby a correspondent — "Which are the 

 better, natural or artificial swarms ?" — is a rather com- 

 plex one, and the answer depends upon conditions to be 

 decided by the questioner. If you desire to buy swarms 

 of bees, I will say by all means buy natural swarms, and 

 the earlier the better. The very best swarms are those 

 that are hived early, mainly because they are the off- 

 spring of the very best colonies, or of g'ood colonies 

 that have found themselves in exceptional conditions 

 favoring- the production of brood. An early swarm of 

 good strength means a good breeding-queen, and, as she 

 goes with the swarm, she is secured by the purchaser of 

 the swarm. 



When I speak of an early swarm, I mean of course a 

 natural swarm, caused by the overcrowding of the hive, 

 and not a deserting swarm, which may be leaving the 

 hive for want of food, or owing to distressing conditions. 

 Practical bee-keepers discriminate at a glance between 

 the two, but many beginners are deceived. A natural 

 swarm issues only in a good honey-producing time, while 

 a deserting colony absconds usually during a shortage 

 of food. The one is always large, the other nearly al- 

 ways small. The one goes with a good supply of food, 

 the other is on the verge of starvati'.n, and I have seen 

 the bees of a deserting colony in summer drop from the 

 cluster from mere exhaustion. 



A good early natural swarm hived on full sheets 

 of foundation, or, still better, on full combs from deceast 

 colonies, may, in a good year, prove as- profitable as a 

 producer of honey as the colony from 'which it issued. 

 Instances are plentiful of swarms filling their hive and 

 swarming again, especially in small hives. 



But natural swarms are not always best. It very 

 often happens that their queen is old, that she has very 

 nearly attained the age of barrenness, and, within a 

 very few months her colony may decrease and perhaps 

 dwindle to nothing owing to her old age. The bees usu- 

 ally attend to the replacing of the queen by rearing a 

 younger one, when they notice that their mother is less- 

 ening her breeding. But sometimes also this is deferred 

 until it is too late, and the end of the season finds them 

 in an abnormal condition with a worthless queen and 

 no brood from which to rear another. Most of the win- 

 ter losses of queens in otherwise healthy-appearing col- 

 onies are due to this. 



Personally I prefer artificial swarming (or dividing) 

 to natural swarming for the increase of colonies in an 



apiary, for a number of reasons. I hold that the best colo- 

 nies for honey-production are the very ones that would 

 swarm most, if circumstances are such as to induce natural 

 swarming. Therefore, by allowing your bees to swarm, or 

 by causing them to swarm, you lose the best of your 

 chances for a honey harvest. It is true that very often, 

 especially with small hives, it is impossible to prevent bees 

 from swarming during a good honey-flow. For such a con- 

 dition there is no remedy unless you want the swarms, and 

 begin by dividing the colonies early enough to avoid the 

 swarming-fever. In this case you sacrifice the crop for an 

 increase. But if only a moderate increase is wanted, and 

 honey is expected, the swarming may be limited to a cer- 

 tain extent even with small hives, by making all the cir- 

 cumstances as favorable as possible to the comfort of the 

 bees. Plenty of space in the hive, a good, free ventilation 



Bitter Sweet.- 



-{Sec page 345.) 



(From the painting by V. Tojetti.) 



