ENTOMOLOGY 417 



then be removed to a new stand and a new hive put in its place. 

 The bees will soon return and the queen can be freed among them 

 as they enter. The field bees on returning will enter the new hive 

 with the swarm, thus decreasing still more the parent colony and 

 making a second swarm less probable. To make sure of this, how- 

 ever, all queen cells except one good one can be removed soon after 

 the swarm issues. To hold a swarm it is desirable to put one frame 

 containing unsealed brood in the new hive. The other frames may 

 contain full sheets or starters of foundation or drawn combs. Usually 

 comb-honey supers or surplus bodies for extracting frames will have 

 been put on before swarming occurs. These are given to the swarm 

 on the old stand and separated from the brood chamber by queen- 

 excluding perforated zinc. 



When clipping the queens' wing is not practiced, swarms may 

 be prevented from leaving by the use of queen traps of perforated 

 zinc. These allow the workers to pass out, but not drones or queens, 

 which, on leaving the entrance, pass up to an upper compartment 

 from which they can not return. These are also used for keeping 

 undesirable drones from escaping, and the drones die of starvation. 

 When a swarm issues from a hive provided with a queen trap, the 

 queen goes to the upper compartment and remains there until re- 

 leased by the bee keeper. The workers soon return to the hive. 

 When the operator discovers the queen outside, the colony may be 

 artificially swarmed to prevent another attempt at natural swarming. 

 A queen trap should not be kept on the hive all the time for fear the 

 old queen may be superseded and the young queen prevented from 

 flying out to mate. 



Prevention of Swarming. Unless increase is particularly de- 

 sired, both natural and artificial swarming should be done away with 

 as far as possible, so that the energy of the bees shall go into the 

 gathering of honey. Since crowded and overheated hives are partic- 

 ularly conducive to swarming, this tendency may be largely over- 

 come by giving plenty of ventilation and additional room in the hive. 

 Shade is also a good preventive of swarming. Extra space in the 

 hive may be furnished by adding more hive bodies and frames or 

 by frequent extracting, so that there may be plenty of room for 

 brood rearing and storage at all times. These manipulations are, of 

 course, particularly applicable to extracted-honey production. 



To curb the swarming impulse frequent examinations of tho 

 colonies (about every week or ten days during the swarming season) 

 for the purpose of cutting out queen cells is a help, but this requires 

 considerable work, and since some cells may be overlooked, and par- 

 ticularly since it frequently fails in spite of the greatest care, it is 

 not usually practiced. Requeening with young queens early in the 

 season, when possible, generally prevents swarming. 



Swarming is largely due to crowded brood chambers, and since 

 eggs laid immediately before and during the honey flow do not pro- 

 duce gatherers, several methods have been tried of reducing tho 

 brood. The queen may either be entirely removed or be c;i.u;e<l in 

 the hive to prevent her from laying. In either event the bees will 



