tJNIVE 



^H\^X 

 TIME FOR COLONIZING. 261 '* 



depends on the season, and varies in different locali- 

 ties ; the nearest approximation to the time would 

 be from eight to ten weeks from the time that they 

 commence to carry in pollen from the willows and 

 other sources of early pasturage, or as soon as drones 

 make their appearance in considerable numbers. In 

 Sacramento and vicinity they commence to carry in 

 pollen about the first of February ; and the first 

 swarms for the -past three years have emerged from 

 the first to the fifteenth of April. In Oregon and 

 Washington Territory, the commencement of the 

 swarming season is probably from three to six weeks 

 later, while in the latitude of Los Angeles, California, 

 it is from two to four weeks earlier. 



Suppose the owner of five hives of bees finds, on 

 the twenty-second day of March, that his bees are 

 becoming crowded in the hives, and from the favora- 

 bleness of the season, believes they would swarm 

 early in the following month. Then let him proceed 

 to make a primary divide,* and form a queen nursery 

 in the queenless division. 



* One primary divide with queen nursery formed, can be de- 

 pended on to supply from four to eight embryo queens. I have 

 had as high as fourteen in one section, and frequently nine to 

 eleven, and as high as twenty in a hive. The number depends 

 mainly on the proper arrangement of the comb, the age of the 

 eggs and larvae, as well as a numerous family of bees and abund- 

 ant pasturage. 



