416 INSECTS AFFECTING VEGETATION 



before the hive becomes too populous. It is perhaps best to clip 

 queens as they are introduced, but some colonies may rear new ones 

 without the knowledge of the owner, and a spring examination will 

 insure no escaping swarms. 



Queens sometimes die during the winter and early spring, and 

 since there is no brood from which the bees can replace them, the 

 queenless colonies are hopelessly queenless. Such colonies are usually 

 restless and are not active in pollen gathering. If, on opening a 

 colony, it is found to be without a queen and reduced in numbers, it 

 should be united with another colony by smoking both vigorously 

 and caging the queen in the queen-right colony for a day or two to 

 prevent her being killed. A frame or two of brood may be added to 

 a queenless colony, not only to increase its strength, but to provide 

 young brood from which they can rear a queen. Bee keepers in the 

 North can frequently buy queens from southern breeders early in 

 the spring, and naturally this is better than leaving the colony with- 

 out a queen until the bees can rear one, as it is important that there 

 be no stoppage in brood rearing at this season. 



Swarm Management and Increase. The excessive rearing of 

 brood at the wrong season or increase in the number of colonies 

 greatly reduces the surplus honey crop by consumption. The ideal 

 to which all progressive bee keepers work, when operating simply 

 for honey, is to stimulate brood rearing to prepare bees for gathering, 

 to retard breeding when it is less desirable, and to prevent swarming. 

 Formerly the measure of success in bee keeping was the amount of 

 increase by swarming, but this is now recognized as being quite the 

 contrary of success. 



The stimulation of brood rearing in the spring, however, makes 

 it more likely that swarming will occur; so that the operator must 

 counteract that tendency. This is especially true in comb-honey 

 production. Very few succeed in entirely preventing swarming, but 

 by various methods the situation can be largely controlled. 



When a swarm issues, it usually first settles on a limb of a tree 

 or bush near the apiary. It was formerly common to make a noise 

 by beating pans or ringing bells in the belief that this causes the 

 swarm to settle. There is no foundation for such action on the part 

 of the bee keeper. If the bees light on a small limb that can be 

 spared, it may simply be sawed off and the bees carried to the hive 

 and thrown on a sheet or hive cover in front of the entrance. If the 

 limb can not be cut, the swarm can be shaken off into a box or basket 

 on a pole and hived. If the bees light on the trunk of a tree or in 

 some inaccessible place, they can first be attracted away by a comb, 

 preferably containing unsealed brood. In these manipulations it is 

 not necessary to get all the bees, but if the queen is not with those 

 which are put in the hive the bees will go into the air again and join 

 the clustr. 



If a queen is clipped as recommended under "Spring Manage- 

 ment," the swarm will issue just the same, but the queen, not being 

 able to fly, will simply wander about on the ground in front of the 

 hive, where she can be caught and caged. The parent colony can 



