without swarming. A too narrow apart- 

 ment is the main cause of natural 

 swarming. Too much heat is another 

 cause. We can, therefore, in a great 

 •degree prevent natural swarming by 

 furnishing our colonies with large hives, 

 and providing them with an abundance 

 of air and a protection against the too 

 warm rays of the sun. Of course the 

 large hive itself will not always be suf- 

 ficient to prevent natural swarming 

 unless we enlarge the room in time — I 

 mean before the colony, having filled all 

 the combs, begins to suffer from lack of 

 room. I know that there are numerous 

 exceptions to the law that I have writ- 

 ten above ; for although we have tried 

 to prevent altogether the natural 

 swarming of our bees, never have we 

 been able to obtain less than two or 

 three swarms every year in our home 

 apiary, numbering about 100 colonies. 



I think that I can trace the causes of 

 these uncalled for swarms. The ex- 

 treme longevity of the queen is about 5 

 years, or 60 months. It follows that in 

 100 colonies the death of 2 of the 100 

 queens will occur every 6 weeks. If we 

 add that spring is the season of fatigue 

 for the queen, as well as for the bees, as 

 she works, depositing eggs, more in the 

 spring than in any other season, we will 

 understand how it is that, even with all 

 young queens not older than 3 years, 2 

 or 3 of our colonies lose their queens 

 during the honey season. Besides, it 

 happens that we sometimes maim or 

 kill a queen in visiting our hives. 



Of course, after these deaths the bees 

 hasten to make queen-cells on several 

 combs. But as soon as a queen has 

 emerged from her cell, the bees, that 

 have built and nursed the other queen- 

 cells, are not ready to destroy them— if 

 the honey crop is abundant in the fields 

 — or to let the newly-hatched queen 

 slay the others. The colony is then in 

 the same condition as a colony which 

 has swarmed and desires to send an 

 after-swarm; the more so, because it 

 is in full force. This is the most fre- 

 quent cause of swarming in roomy 

 hives. 



But some bee-keepers know that in 

 some seasons bees swarm even with 

 their hives half full of combs, and that, 

 too, while their queens have remained 

 alive and in good health. I have noticed 

 such swarmings, which occurred during 

 seasons of scarcity of honey. The brood 

 was very abundant, filling all the combs; 

 the bees seemed unable to find more 

 honey than was necessary to keep the 

 hatching bees and the brood alive ; they 

 had none of it to put in store ; they 

 were crowded in the brood-chamber, 

 and had nothing to do in the upper 



story. Under such circumstances, who 

 would dare to affirm that the bees were 

 not tired of inhabiting a locality where 

 they had no chance of surplus for win- 

 ter ; or that they were able to provide 

 enough of pollen, or of honey, for the 

 brood ? 



I have studied this question of natural 

 swarming very closely. I have experi- 

 mented with all the means indicated by 

 the authors in bee-culture, to prevent 

 natural swarming. I have partially 

 succeeded by dividing my colonies ; but 

 as a colony and its swarm do not gather 

 as much honey as if it had remained 

 whole, I have abandoned this method. 

 I have tried the perforated sheet-iron, 

 contrived by Abbate Collin, of France, 

 to prevent the queen from following the 

 swarm. I have tried, also, the queen- 

 yard of Quinby. from which the queen, 

 with clipped wings, could not fly out. 

 In both of these experiments I have 

 obtained the same result : the killing of 

 the queens by their own bees. Then 

 the colonies have swarmed with virgin 

 queens, as soon as these newly hatched 

 queens were able to fly ; and the crop of 

 honey suffered during all these prepa- 

 rations, on account of the dissatisfac- 

 tion of the bees. Now, I have every 

 confidence in the method that I pursue, 

 for I have tried it for a long time. For 

 10 years, with one exception, the num- 

 ber of natural swarms did not exceed 3 

 per hundred in our home apiary. To 

 obtain this desirable result we use 

 Quinby hives, enlarged to 10 or 11 frames 

 before the swarming season, and cov- 

 ered with a second story holding 10 

 small frames, furnished" with drone 

 comb or comb foundation. With such 

 hives, and, if necessary, a third and even 

 a fourth story, we control as much as 

 possible natural swarming, directing 

 the full strength of our strongest colo- 

 nies to the production of honey, and 

 using all the colonies too weak to pro- 

 cure honey, in rearing bees to make 

 artificial swarms. 



From the foregoing it will be seen 

 that our management of bees is quite 

 different from the method described by 

 our successful friend Doolittle, who 

 gives preference to small hives fur- 

 nished with small frames, while we pre- 

 fer the large frames in the largest hives. 

 Mr. Doolittle works mostly for comb 

 honey, we for extracted ; hence the dif- 

 ference in our management. Yet, as I 

 cannot accept without protest his con- 

 demnation of the large hives, I will try 

 to give my views on this question in a 

 subsequent article. 



But before entering on this new field, 

 I will conclude with this resume : Swarm- 

 ing is always the result of some want, 



