418 INSECTS AFFECTING VEGETATION 



usually build queen cells to replace her, and these must be kept cut 

 out. These plans would answer the purpose very well were it not 

 for the fact that queenless colonies often do not work vigorously. 

 Under most circumstances these methods can not be recommended. 

 A better method is to remove brood about swarming time and thus 

 reduce the amount. There are generally colonies in the apiary to 

 which frames of brood can be given to advantage. 



In addition to these methods various nonswarming devices have 

 been invented, and later a nonswarming hive so constructed that 

 there is no opportunity for the bees to form a dense cluster. The 

 breeding of bees by selecting colonies with less tendency to swarm 

 has been suggested, but nothing has been accomplished along that 

 line. 



On the whole, the best methods are the giving of plenty of 

 room, shade, and ventilation to colonies run for extracted honey; 

 and ventilation, shade, and artificial swarming of colonies run for 

 comb honey. Frequent requeening (about once in two years) is de- 

 sirable for other reasons, and requeening before swarming time helps 

 in the solution of that difficulty. 



Preparation for the Harvest. An essential in honey production 

 is to have the hive overflowing with bees at the beginning of the 

 honey flow, so that the field force will be large enough to gather more 

 honey than the bees need for their own use. To accomplish this, the 

 bee keeper must see to it that brood rearing is heavy some time be- 

 fore the harvest, and he must know accurately when the honey flows 

 come, so that he may time his manipulations properly. Brood rear- 

 ing during the honey flow usually produces bees which consume 

 stores, while brood reared before the flow furnishes the surplus gath- 

 erers. The best methods of procedure may be illustrated by giving 

 as an example the conditions in the white-clover region. 



In the spring the bees gather pollen and nectar from various 

 early flowers, and often a considerable quantity from fruit bloom 

 and dandelions. During this time brood rearing is stimulated by 

 the new honey, but afterwards there is usually a period of drought 

 when brood rearing is normally diminished or not still more in- 

 creased as it should be. This condition continues until the white- 

 clover flow comes on, usually with a rush, when brood rearing is 

 again augmented. If such a condition exists, the bee keeper should 

 keep brood rearing at a maximum by stimulative feeding during 

 the drought. When white clover comes in bloom he may even find 

 it desirable to prevent brood rearing to turn the attention of his 

 bees to gathering. 



A worker bee emerges from its cell twenty-one days after the 

 egg is laid, and it usually begins field work in from fourteen to seven- 

 teen days later. It is evident, therefore, that an egg must be laid 

 five weeks before the honey flow to produce a gatherer. Since the 

 flow continues for some time and since bees often go to the field 

 earlier than fourteen days, egg laying should be pushed up to within 

 two or three weeks of the opening of the honey flow. In addition 



