taken it in turn. This is corroborated by 

 our experience witli cabbage and currant 

 worms, potato bugs and otiier pests, whicli 

 in a few seasons of unchecked devastation, 

 are overtaken by tiieir enemies, and their 

 ravages cut short, in a sensible degree. 



To what extent tiiese pests are to affect 

 our pursuits, is yet to be determined. If 

 this paper shall induce others to assist in 

 investigating the subject, and report the 

 results for the advancement of our science, 

 the end for which it is intended will be ac- 

 complished. L. C. Root, 



How to Prevent Swarming. 



KEAD BEFORE THE VT. ASSOCIATIOX. 



It is well known that bees that do 

 not swarm will store much more honey in 

 boxes than they would if they threw off a 

 swarm or two, for the reason that they are 

 so reduced in numbers that it takes nearly 

 all that the few remaining workers can do to 

 furnish honey enough to feed the young 

 bees that are hatching so fast at that season 

 of the year. Shoukl they gather more than 

 the young consume, they have plenty of 

 room in the brood comb, made vacant by 

 the hatching bees, to store all the surplus — 

 for a time at least, — when if they had not 

 swarmed the queen would quickly deposit 

 eggs in the cells made vacant by the iiatch- 

 ing bees; therefore they would then be 

 obliged to store their honey in boxes. It 

 will readily be seen, then, that it is very im- 

 portant for the honey producer that he 

 should prevent swarming as much as possi- 

 ble. Now how can this be done? It has 

 always seemed to me like working against 

 nature to try to prevent swarming. But 

 then I have noticed that some colonies do 

 not swarm, and they are the ones that make 

 the most box-honey, and at the same time 

 everything in the brood chamber seem to 

 be in good order. Now if they were not 

 working contrary to nature, why not other 

 colonics be prevented from swarming if 

 they are placed in the same condition? In 

 the first place we should breed from non- 

 swarming strains. I think this is a very 

 essential point; in fact it almost wholly de- 

 pends upon the qu(!en, at least I am satisfied 

 that it does. 



I mentioned in my paper last May of hav- 

 ing a strain of unswarming queens. I ex- 

 perimented a great deal last season with 

 these queens and not one of them swarmed, 

 and they stored more in boxes than any 

 other strain I had, and I had three others. 



These three strains did all the swarming. 

 One strain in particular wanted to swarm 

 all the time in spite of all I could do. I 

 thought these must have been aware of the 

 late Horace Greeley's advice to young men 

 to emigrate West. But in this case it was 

 the old lady that wished to emigrate. 



Therefore, I think I can safely say that 

 there is a great difference in strains of bees 

 about swarming. Why should there not be 

 as nuich difference in bees as there are in 

 different families of hens? We know that 

 there are certain strains of hens whose pro- 

 pensities for setting are much less than 

 others. I think, therefore, if we breed our 



queens properly this point can be attained. 



I will tell yovi how I managed last season. 

 I do not mention it with any idea of boast- 

 ing, as it was wholly an accident with me. 

 1 was working for something else, wiien I 

 noticed, later in the season, that my work 

 paid me two-fold. I was not working to 

 prevent swarming. Really if any one had 

 asked me at the time if 1 was trying to pre- 

 vent swarming, I should have told them I 

 was not,— that it would induce them to 

 swarm early. Nor do I know that it will 

 prevent swarming every time, but I think 

 with good queens it will be a great, help. 



My object in writing this is to have others 

 try it another season and report the result. 

 It is this. In the spring as soon as it is set- 

 tled weather and the colonies will bear it, 

 say the last half of May, when young bees 

 are hatching fast and the queens are laying 

 abundantly, go to every hive and examine 

 the condition of each, and all that are in 

 condition to admit of it, spread the brood — 

 that is, separate the combs from the center 

 of the brood nest and insert an empty comb 

 in the space made vacant by the separation 

 of the brood. Great care should be taken in 

 this work not to over do it, as a little too 

 much spreading of the brood, especially in 

 cold weather, would be very injurious. If 

 they have no honey near the brood-nest a 

 comb containing honey and pollen should 

 be placed near them so that they will not be 

 obliged to travel over cold combs in order to 

 reach their stores. This should be done as 

 often as the condition of the colony and the 

 weather will permit. The reason for so 

 doing is two-fold. First by so doing the 

 queen is not obliged to go outside of the 

 cluster to find empty comb to deposit her 

 eggs in. In this way we can help our bees 

 a great deal, and they will increase much 

 faster than they would if we left them alone 

 entirely. This should be repeated as often 

 as once or twice a week if the weather is 

 warm and pollen is coming in abundantly. 

 Second, by managing in this way we will 

 have very strong swarms early, which is 

 very essential to secure a large crop of 

 honey. 



Now why should this mode of manage- 

 ment prevent swarming? I reason thus : 

 By having every comb in the hive filled 

 with brood early.— before the honey season 

 commences, as well as before the bees have 

 the swarming fever, as it is called. There 

 will be hundreds of young bees hatching 

 daily, consequently there will be hundreds 

 of cells vacated daily. Therefore making 

 room for the queen to deposit eggs, and 

 keeping her busy all the time they will 

 have no occasion for swarming. You will 

 perhaps say that the hive willsoon become 

 so crowded by this abundant hatching that 

 the bees will be obliged to swarm for want 

 of room. This would be the case, perhaps, 

 with the careless bee-keeper. But if on the 

 other hand he has been on the alert, up and 

 doing, with a thorough knowledge of the 

 inside of his hives and the requirements 

 thereof, he will have had his boxes on be- 

 fore this, thus making room for the surplus 

 bees and leaving the brood nest with no 

 more bees than is required there. This 

 should be done before tliey get the swarm- 

 ing fever (that is box-room should be given 



