16 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



known fact that bees supersede their 

 queens when they become old or 

 otherwise defective, and when an api- 

 ary contains a large number of old 

 queens, at the beginning of the 

 swarming season, there will most 

 likely be excessive swarming, because 

 the desire on the part of the bees to 

 supersede their old queens will inten- 

 sify the desire to swarm ; and, having 

 swarmed, if the old queen is not too 

 far spent in strength, she may be the 

 cause of a swarm casting a swarm. 

 I once had a swarm that cast a swarm 

 in just a week after they were hived, 

 because they had an old queen. 

 Sometimes bees will prepare to 

 swarm by starting queen cells, and 

 though the honey flow shuts down 

 suddenly, they will swarm any how, 

 though there is nothing to be had 

 from the fields. In these cases they 

 swarm because they want to super- 

 sede their queen, and their attempt 

 to do so leads to a swarm. I fre- 

 quently rear queens in March to sup- 

 ply queenless colonies in the spring. 

 Well, I never knew one of these colo- 

 nies having a strong young queen to 

 cast a swarm the first season. From 

 observations I have made, I feel cer- 

 tain that if I had young, vigorous 

 queens in all my colonies, I mean 

 queens reared and mated in the early 

 spring before swarming time, I should 

 not have a single swarm during the 

 season, no matter how populous the 

 colonies became, provided they were 

 supplied with plenty of room as fast 

 as they needed it ; and if all my 

 queens were just one year old, I 

 should expect an increase in an aver- 

 age season of not more than ten per 

 cent. If the queens were all two 

 years old, I should expect thirty or 

 forty per cent of increase, and if my 

 queens were all three years old, I 

 should look for nearly one hundred 

 per cent of prime swarms. Hence, 

 I conclude that while nature has in- 

 bred into bees the instinctive desire 

 to multiply the race' by dividing off 

 into new swarms or colonies and thus 



forming new commonwealths, there 

 are many conditions likely to inter- 

 vene and prevent uniformity of re- 

 sults. 



Christiansburg, Ky. 



ANSWERS BY J. E. POND. 



This question, like No. i, is largely 

 theoretical. We only know that 

 swarming is the natural way by which 

 bees "multiply and replenish ;" and 

 the answer might well be given, "be- 

 cause they are made that way." We 

 know, by studying comparative anat- 

 omy, and the laws that govern pro- 

 creation, that conception does not 

 follow every cohabitation ; if it did, 

 the world would soon be far too small 

 to accommodate the life thus brought 

 into being. In a state of nature, the 

 excess is kept down by war, pesti- 

 lence and famine, among the human 

 race ; and in the struggle for life 

 among the lower orders, the doctrine 

 of the "survival of the fittest" ap- 

 plies now in swarming. Bees must 

 live, and only can live in colonies. 

 They must swarm in order to in- 

 crease ; the rule being that when a 

 given hive is well filled with brood 

 and stores, and the indications are, 

 that stores will continue to be gath- 

 ered, the swarm will issue to set up 

 a new home. The exceptions prove 

 the rule, and we can not determine 

 why a given swarm issues under dis- 

 advantageous circumstances, or does 

 not issue when circumstances seem 

 most favorable. In other words : we 

 know that certain forces exist in na- 

 ture, and that certain results follow 

 certain causes. Grass grows ; why 

 or by what means we know not. 

 Grain is changed into animal food 

 products by digestion ; how, we know 

 not. So in the matter of swarming, 

 the rule governs. And it is the rule 

 that a crowded hive will cast a swarm, 

 while one that has ample room will 

 not. To undertake to explain the 

 contraries of swarming will be to 

 simply theorize on the subject : as 



