560 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



Fig. 2. — Binding the wrapped section with adhesive paper, thus holding 

 the transparent paper in position, and preventing lealcage should the 

 coiub get cracked. 



delivers it himself to grocers and dealers. It 

 is certainly a fact that comb honey sells it- 

 self; and if a wrapper can be used to keep 

 the honey perfectly clean, and still show 

 the comb underneath, we believe it is a step 

 in the right direction, although, after all, the 

 amount of labor required may render the 

 plan objectionable to many. — Ed.] 



SWARMING AND ITS CAUSE. 



BY ARTHUR C. iVIILLER. 



[Mr. Miller has made this subject a special study 

 for years. What he has to offer should be given 

 careful consideration by the student. M'hen we 

 know all the causes we are in a lair way to remove 

 the annoyances of swarnilng.— Ed.] 



In CiLEANiNGS for August 1 Mr. William 

 Beucus attempted to formulate the laws of 

 swarming. From the writer's point of view 

 Mr. Beucus erred in trying to put the vari- 

 ous forms of absconding in the phenomenon 

 of swarming. The confusion is easily made, 



because all of the va- 

 rious forms of exodus 

 from the hive are com- 

 monly though errone- 

 ously called "swarm- 

 ing." All such, exceiit 

 the normal seasonable 

 "budding off" of a 

 l)art of a vigorous col- 

 i»ny, should be consid- 

 ereil as an absconding, 

 the result of some form 

 of distress. There are 

 many ways of causing 

 the abrui)t leaving of 

 home by a colony, and 

 it is not hard to sub- 

 stantiate by exi)eri- 

 ment the soundness of 

 I his view. Normal 

 swarming is always ac- 

 (•omi)anied by the pro- 

 duction of queens; 

 hence if we can pre- 

 sent the desire to pro- 

 duce queens we should 

 (and do) prevent 

 s w a r m i n g. But the 

 1) r o d u c t i o n of new 

 queens is not by any 

 means accompanied 

 by swarming, as ex- 

 ampled in cases of su- 

 persedure. When the 

 latter coincides with 

 the honey-flow, heat, 

 crowding, etc., swarm- 

 ing occurs, but not 

 otherwise. From these 

 we can deduce the fol- 

 lowing: That combin- 

 ed honey-flow, heat, 

 crowding, etc., or any 

 one of them alone, is 

 not the prime cause of 

 true swarming; hence 

 the phenomenon must 

 be intimately connected with queen-produc- 

 tion. This reduces the problem to one point; 

 namely, What is the cause of queen produc- 

 tion? Can it be answered? 



The cause is present at swarming time. 

 There is no doubt about that. It is right 

 before us; but what is it? It is right there 

 when supersedure occurs. Now, what con- 

 ditions are to be found in both cases? Find 

 those, and the i^rime cause of swarming is 

 found. 



W^hen found, the battle is half won; and 

 it only remains to find a feasible and simple 

 way to control that impulse. Heat and 

 crowding are easily control l."t!; but the other 

 factor or factors may be nice troublesome. 



For many years the wi iter has been study- 

 ing swarming. After reaching the foregoing 

 point, effort was made to find those elusi\ e 

 factors. Many theories were formed, but 

 were not tenable. A clue was finally dis- 

 covered, r.nd it seems to be a good one. For 

 four years over 100 colonies have been under 

 observation. About three-quarters of them 



