THE AMERICAN APICULTVRIST. 



17 



Mrs. Tupper well says," Bees do 

 nothing invariably," and swarming or 

 non-swarming falls within that rule. 

 The whole science of beekeeping 

 is made up of the application of a 

 few general rules to our knowledge 

 of the nature and habits of the bees. 

 We cannot drive nor force them ; 

 We can to a certain extent lead them, 

 and in the matter of swarming we 

 have through the invention of "Al- 

 ley's queen and drone trap" a cer- 

 tain means of prevention. This 

 being the case the chief point de- 

 sired to be answered, is of little in- 

 terest, as the matter is now wliolly 

 within our control. 



ANSWERS BY DR. TINKER. 



Swarming is impelled and ex- 

 acted by the insoluble enigma of 

 instinct. It is nature's provision 

 for the propagation and extension 

 of the honey tjee, and no artifice 

 of man will ever prevent it. In- 

 bred and nurtured through all the 

 ages, it comes down to us as a 

 fixed law of the bees' life whose 

 impulse we can no more alter or 

 divert from an attempted fulfil- 

 ment of its purpose than we can 

 prevent the rain or the sunshine of 

 heaven. The conditions, propi- 

 tious of swarming, are many ; a 

 brood-chamber crowded with 3' oung 

 bees and hatching brood in the 

 combs being one of the most fav- 

 orable. The season of the year 

 has also something to do with it ; 

 for the bees begin the preparations 

 long before the harvest begins in 

 rearing a stock of drones. Then 

 they make the queen cups ready 

 for the queen to lay in them and 

 yet the harvest is not at hand. 

 The queen deposits the royal eggs 

 and when the cells are capped over 

 the bees swarm, often before there 

 are barely siifficientnectar and pol- 

 len coming in to support the grow- 

 ing brood. "When there is an 

 abundance of nectar in the flow- 

 ers following a prolonged scarcity, 



2 



as is often the case in the sprino-, 

 the bees would not have a super- 

 abundance of young bees or be in- 

 clined to swarm until they had. In 

 fact, the over populous brood- 

 chamber is nearly always present 

 before swarming. It is on this ac- 

 count that colonies having very 

 prolific queens are more inclined to 

 swarm than others. They soon be- 

 come crowded and overheated and 

 then think about swarming. Again, 

 although the preparations have 

 been made for swarming, it hap- 

 pens that the weather is only mod- 

 erately warm, and the bees are not 

 so crowded as to suffer from over- 

 heating, and such weather may 

 continue until the failure of nectar 

 in the flowers. But when a few 

 very warm days set in, the other 

 conditions being favorable, the 

 swarming fever rapidly develops 

 and cannot be wholly prevented 

 by extracting or other means. 



PREVENTION OF INCREASE. 



Query Wo. 3. Suppose a person 

 has uU the bees he can manage proflta- 

 bly, and there is no sale for the surplus 

 swarms, what is the most practical 

 method one can adopt iu order to keep 

 an apiary down to about filty colonies? 

 Of course more or less swarms will 

 issue each season. Now, would you ad- 

 vise one to hive the new swarms and 

 iu the fall destroy an equal number of 

 old ones? or would it be better to re- 

 turn all swarms as they issue, letting 

 the queens care for themselves? 



L. C. M. 



ANSWERS BY WILL M. KELLOGG. 



In answer to the questions of your 

 correspondent, L. C, M., I will say 

 that he has described exactly my 

 own condition of affairs, no sale for 

 bees and no desire for increase. I 

 range from sixty to seventy swarms, 

 and the method I follow produces 

 the result I try for. Each one has 

 his own method, and I will give mine. 



