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lished, and it' we can effect these con- 

 ditions, we can control the bees. The 

 conditons which bring about swarming, 

 are a good yield of nectar, and warm 

 weather— and of course a good queen. 

 The first tells the queen that it is now 

 safe to lay abundantly, for the food 

 which the young larvae will need as 

 soon as hatched, is abundant, and the 

 second makes it possible for her to 

 move freely about the hive, and also 

 enlarges the brood-nest, by enabling the 

 bees to spread themselves, as they can- 

 not do in cold weather, and so keep 

 warm a large number of combs. As 

 the work of the hive — that is the rear- 

 ing of brood and the storing of honey 

 progresses, the hive becomes crowded 

 and the bees seem to see the time ahead 

 when it will be over crowded. They 

 appear to know that the only relief 

 from such an embarrassment of riches, 

 is to be obtained by swarming, and this 

 they proceed to do by making queen- 

 cells, so that the old hive will not be 

 left queenless, for generally, bees are 

 provident of the future. If these queen- 

 cells are removed, swarming is usually 

 delayed; but if in addition to this a few 

 cells are kept empty of honey, and 

 ready for the queen's use, and room 

 provided for the workers as well, the 

 desire to swarm will seldom be mani- 

 fested. At least if the other conditions 

 surrounding the colony are favorable to 

 its comfort. This may necessitate 

 shading or ventilation, or both. Chaff 

 hives, in a great measure at least, main- 

 tain a comfortable and an even tempera- 

 ture, which of course, tends to make 

 the bees contented with their home, 

 and so the disposition to swarm is dis- 

 couraged. It should be remarked in 

 passing, that uncomfortable quarters 

 will cause bees to swarm, when no other 

 reason can be assigned for the act. 



If in spite of all our precautions, a 

 colony is determined to swarm, we still 

 have a means of detaining them, if the 

 precaution is taken in time— we mean 

 the clipping of the queen's wing. This 

 is so important, and so easily done that 

 it is best to render all queens incapable 

 of leaving their homes. 



This will not prevent the bees from 

 swarming, but they will come back when 

 they find themselves queenless, unless 

 they have an opportunity of uniting 

 with another outcoming swarm which 

 has its queen, which they will some- 

 times do. The clipped queen will ac- 

 company the bees out of the hive, 

 without seeming to be aware that she 

 cannot accompany them on the wing. 

 On account of her disability to fly, she 

 will soon settle to the earth, or alight on 

 some low shrub or tuft of grass, a few 



of her workers will surround her, and 

 by the cluster that they thus form, she 

 may easily be found and put back in 

 the hive. But before this is done, any 

 queen-cells which there may be in the 

 hive, should be removed. They are 

 often useful to put in nuclei. 



If the bees cluster, and they generally 

 do before they return to their hive, a 

 few handsf ull maybe used to strengthen 

 weak colonies or nuclei. This will 

 generally also serve the purpose of 

 weakening the swarming hive enough 

 to quiet their desire to swarm for the 

 season ; but still more may be done in 

 that direction by the use of the ex- 

 tractor, so as to give more room to both 

 workers and queen. 



A colony managed in this way if the 

 queen is an abundant layer, wdl soon 

 become very strong and in the best 

 condition to yield profit to its owner, 

 and in this condition it should be kept, 

 if the object of the owner is honey 

 rather than increase. It is much easier 

 to keep a colony in this state, if ex- 

 tracted honey is desired rather than 

 honey in the comb, for bees are disin- 

 clined to work in boxes which are neces- 

 sarily away from the brood-chamber, 

 while there is unoccupied room in the 

 body of the hive. Hence it is some- 

 times more desirable to raise extracted 

 than comb honey. 



If comb honey is the desideratum, 

 the mode of prbceedure is much the 

 same, except that the workers are 

 allowed to crowd themselves out of the 

 body of the hive, and ax-e thus compelled 

 to work in the section boxes, which are 

 provided for them, or swarm— which 

 they are inclined to do unless the queen 

 has some empty cells — and these it is a 

 hard matter to keep supplied, on ac- 

 count of the disposition of the workers 

 to All all unoccupied cells in the brood- 

 chamber before storing in the surplus 

 boxes. The point at which bees will 

 store in surplus boxes and yet notswarm, 

 is a critical one, and a difficult one to 

 maintain, though many apiarists are 

 successful in doing it. It requires both 

 skill and close watchfulness. 



There seems to be a difference in the 

 various families of bees in their disposi- 

 tion to swarm, some being more dis- 

 posed to do so than others. This is an 

 important trait, and should be taken 

 into consideration when selecting colo- 

 nies to breed from. Strong colonies do 

 much more work in proportion to size 

 than weak 'ones, in respect to both 

 honey gathering and brood rearing, 

 hence swarming is accomplished only 

 at a great expense. 



When there seems to be danger that 

 some of our strong colonies will swarm 



