186 



Swarming of Honey Bees. 



V^OL. XII. 



From the American Agriculturist. 



SAA'armiiig of Honey Bees. 



The cause of swarming, in all cases, is 

 an excess of population, the bees not havinn; 

 room for all to work to advantage. When 

 bees are placed in very large hives, or when 

 they are quartered in an open room, as is 

 sometimes done, they never swarm. Swarm- 

 ing may also be prevented by affording ad- 

 ditional room, either at the bottom, top, or 

 side of the liive during the swarming season. 

 As a matter of profit, in the increase of 

 stocks, bees should never bo placed in rooms, 

 or in hives larger than twelve inches square 

 If we should hive two swarms, the one in a 

 hive two feet square, and the other in a hive 

 one foot square; or in hives of the same solid 

 contents, though differently shaped, the re 

 suit of the increase of each, at the end of 

 five years, would be, with good management, 

 about as follows, viz: the swarm in the 

 larger hive would about half fill it with 

 comb the first year; the second year it 

 would be completed, but no new swarm. 

 The following spring would find the hive 

 full of comb, but only half full of bees ; and 

 it would require the third year to replenish, 

 and so it would continue ad ivfinilum, yearly 

 replenishing its lost population, and at the 

 end of fifty years you would have no more 

 bees than when you commenced ! 



The other hive would be plumply filled 

 the first year; the second year a couple of 

 prime swarms might be calculated on; the 

 third year, we will say, only one swarm 

 each — a very low estimate — we now have 

 six swarms; the fourth year we will double 

 to a certainty, and the fifth year the same, 

 making twenty-four swarms, while the larger 

 hive ''stands alone in its glory," if not en 

 tirely annihilated by the ravages of the moth, 

 the more probable result of the two. In 

 each hive there is but one queen, which is 

 the source of all the increase. The eggs 

 are laid by her. A hive one foot square is 

 as large as she can use. In such a hive all 

 the workers that she desires to carry out 

 her ends can be fully accommodated. Ten 

 thousand bees to a hive in the spring are all- 

 sufficient — more would be but an encum- 

 brance; hence, we find, that though there 

 be one hundred thousand in a large hive du 

 ring the breeding season, the following 

 spring finds them departed to that "bourne 

 whence they never return." 



The principal laying of the queen depend 

 much upon the mildness of the spring, and 

 much upon the strength of the stock. I am 



case with any populous stock we have abun- 

 dant proof, in cases where the stock has been 

 destroyed in the heart of winter, as an expe- 

 riment to test the fact. Where such is the 

 case, there is not that diminution in the 

 number of the bees from fall to spring that 

 ordinarily occurs. In weak stocks, the inter- 

 nal heat necessary for the maturing of the 

 young brood cannot be produced, and we 

 find that such stocks arc compelled to await 

 the approach of warm weather. Hej-e we 

 have the basis of prosperity in a nut-shell. 

 If we cannot so manage that our hives will 

 be populous to their greatest capacity, we 

 may as well give up the idea of perfect suc- 

 cess at once. 



If the hive be well filled, the queen is 

 fully aware that a large portion of her in- 

 crease, which the laws of nature compel her 

 to give, must leave her domicil ; and she 

 also, through instinct, learns that each 

 swarm must be provided with a queen-re- 

 gent, like herself, in order to perpetuate 

 their species. These queens, or rather prin- 

 cesses, are produced from the common egg 

 from which issue the workers, or from a 

 common worker-grub, in its primary stages 

 of advancement by a particular treatment. 

 This fact is shown by the mode of artificial 

 swarming, now practised to some extent; 

 the philosophy of which is this: if a piece 

 of comb, containing the young brood of dif- 

 ferent stages of maturity, be attached to the 

 top of an empty hive, and a quantity of bees 

 be placed therein, having no queen, they 

 will select a certain aged grub from the 

 comb afforded them, and by a particular pro- 

 cess of nursing and feeding — the nature of 

 which never was nor ever will be known by 

 us — they will produce a perfect queen, and 

 proceed in their avocation as usual. Without 

 this piece of comb no power or ingenuity of 

 man could cause the bees to perforjn a sin- 

 gle day's labour. 



As each swarm requires a princess from 

 the old stock, from two to six are generally 

 produced every spring, and such as are not 

 wanted are immediately put to death, as it 

 is entirely out of the question for more than 

 one to exist in the same hive, unless it be 

 during the short period awaiting the issue of 

 a swarm. A very remarkable circumstance 

 occurs in the developement of these young 

 princesses; they are so timed in their matu- 

 rity as to issue from their cells respectively 

 just as thay are wanted to take their depart- 

 ure with the swarms. That is, giving them 

 a short period afler quitting their cells to 

 gain strength for the journey, say forty-eight 



fully satisfied that many of my stocks are in 1 hours. It must here be borne in mind, that 

 progress of breeding through the entire -win- I where there is sufficient room, as in very 

 ter, to some extent. Indeed that such is thej'large hives, the queen sees no necessity of 



