Sb AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 



INCREASE BY NATURAL SVVARMIXG. 



In timt'S past it was largely the custom to depend for 

 increase ciiiefly upon natural swarming, but in modern 

 commercial bee-keeping, there are better and more 

 reliable methods in vogue which will be explained 

 further on. I shall, however, mention the conditions 

 which lead up to and cause natural swarming. The 

 natural instinct for swarming, with which bees are 

 endowed, is an admirable provision for the propagation 

 of their race and its spread over any country favourable 

 for their existence. When we recollect that it is only 

 by means of the queens and drones that the race can 

 be propagated , that these queens and drones cannot 

 exist by themselves, or without the workers of a colony ; 

 that the queens require to be renewed periodically in 

 order to keep up strong stocks, while the workers are 

 only for a short season, and the drones for a fev.^ 

 months : and, finally, that only one queen can as a rule 

 be tolerated at a time in any colony, we cannot fail to 

 be struck with admiration at the beautiful manner in 

 which the swarming instinct is adapted to this state of 

 things. 



CAUSE OF SWARMING. 



The chief cause of swarming is an overcrowded hive, 

 but it may be greatly accelerated by insufhcient ventil- 

 ation. There is, however, a season when the swarming 

 instinct becomes energetic, and the desire to swarm 

 intense. At such times the bees will occasionally 

 contract what has been well named as the ** Swarming 

 Fever," and when in this condition they seem to get out 

 of control, and will swarm in spite of all that we may do 

 to prevent it. 



In the ordinary course of things, the queen, with a 

 comparatively small colony of workers, comes out of 

 winter quarters, and under normal conditions starts 

 the great work of egg laying in early August or later 

 according to the latitude of the apiary. ^ Breeding 

 proceeds slowly, but steadily increases until the first 

 young bees begin to emerge, when it advances more 

 rapidly, and by October (early or late in the month 



