For the American Bee Journal. 



Natural and Abnormal Swarming. 



CHAS. DADANT. 



To migrate or leave home, in search of 

 a better abode, is among the necessary 

 faculties of nearly all animals. Man is 

 not an exception to this law. This mi- 

 gration is always provoked, either con- 

 sciously or unconsciously, by some un- 

 easiness, such as the lack of the 

 necessaries of life, the narrowness of 

 the home, or by some other defective 

 circumstances. 



The human race shows, in past histo- 

 ry, and even now, constant examples of 

 migration. When these migrations in- 

 clude a great number of individuals 

 they are called swarms. The bees, the 

 ants, the locusts are said to swarm. 

 These migrations are the result of the 

 same law which governs the changes of 

 residence of all the other kinds of ani- 

 mals, bees not excepted. I know that 

 this assertion is not in accordance with 

 the notions generally accepted by bee- 

 keepers, or, at least, that my idea never 

 has been taught as absolutely as I sug- 

 gest it ; most of the writers having 

 taught that swarming is the process by 

 which bees increase the number of colo- 

 nies, and some authors having even 

 gone so far as to compare swarms to the 

 fruit or seeds of a tree; but I think 

 that I can sustain and prove the asser- 

 tion, that all swarming of bees is the 

 result of uneasiness. 



No kind of animals shows more love 

 of home than bees, yet every old bee- 

 keeper has seen bees leaving their hives 

 in early spring, long before the swarm- 

 ing time. For instance, when bees have 

 wintered in the cellar, as soon as the 

 hives are put on their summer stands, it 

 happens that some colonies desert their 

 hives and go in quest of a new home. 



I have noticed that such is the case 

 when their stay in the cellar during the 

 last days or weeks has been attended 

 with uneasiness, either from a desire of 

 voiding their faeces or from anxiety to 

 go out— anxiety aroused by a too high 

 temperature of the cellar. The bees, as 

 soon as at liberty to fly, hasten to leave 

 a habitation where they have suffered. 



When a colony has been sick with 

 dysentery and has stained its combs, the 

 bees are apt to abandon the hive in 

 quest of a cleaner abode. If, after 

 cleaning the hive and giving them dry 

 combs, we return the colony to the same 

 hive, they will usually remain. 



Now and then, at a time when there 

 is no indication of swarming, we notice 

 that a colony has departed from its hive, 

 leaving honey and brood in every stage 



of growth in clean combs. If we look 

 in the empty combs, we will notice that 

 there is no pollen. The bees, being- 

 unable to raise brood successfully with- 

 out pollen, have swarmed, rather than 

 witness their brood perish. Generally, 

 late natural swarms of the preceding 

 year are those to which such accidents 

 happen, because they were unable to 

 provide a sufficiency of pollen for the 

 spring. Such swarms, unfortunately, 

 are not very rare. By giving them a 

 good comb with pollen, we can return 

 them to their hives, where they will 

 stay, the causes of their departure hav- 

 ing disappeared. These unseasonable 

 swarms are called, in France, " swarms 

 of Easter," on account of the time in 

 which they happen. 



Nobody will contradict that all these 

 kinds of migration are the result of the 

 uneasiness of the bees, which have thus 

 obeyed the great law of nature im- 

 pressed on every race of animals, to 

 hunt for another abode in view of find- 

 ing more happiness. 



Some bee-keepers will dbject, that 

 while these swarmings are the result of 

 the miserable circumstances in which 

 the bees were placed, it does not 

 follow that what is known as natural 

 swarming is the result of uneasiness ; 

 that natural swarming not only perpe - 

 uates, but increases the number of colo- 

 nies. I beg here to say, that another 

 undeniable law of nature is that the 

 faculty of reproduction of all living be- 

 ings, plants or animals, is in proportion 

 to the surroundings in which each kind 

 is compelled to live. 



If a race is in the best circumstances, 

 the individuals of which it is composed 

 will live a long life, therefore, as the 

 race has very little chance of disappear- 

 ing from the earth, its prolificness 

 decreases. If, on the contrary, a race 

 is compelled to live in straitened cir- 

 cumstances, as it incurs the risk of ceas- 

 ing to exist, its fecundity increases. 



A young vigorous tree gives very few 

 fruits ; a decaying one is covered with 

 ilowers in spring. A flowering plant, 

 too, well cared for, doubles. The organs 

 of reproduction, stamens and pistils, 

 disappear and are replaced by petals. 

 A too fat animal is not so apt to repro- 

 duce its ! species as a lean one. Some 

 rich married couples, too well fed, can- 

 not have the joy of being blessed with 

 children, while their poor neighbors 

 have more clvildren than they are able 

 to nurse. A colony of bees, hived in a 

 narrow box, incurs the risk of being 

 unable to store honey for winter, it 

 swarms ; while a colony placed in a ca- 

 pacious hive, having no such risk, re- 

 mains for years in the same abode 



