(; L V. A X r N U S I X l'. e e c u i. t u r r 



341 



tlu- (iiu'L'ii is kcjit supiilicil with eniuty colls 

 for her ogys. If the brodilchaiiiber becoiiios 

 erowiled, it is necessary to remove, tirst, 

 combs of honey; then combs of the ripest 

 brood to make room for an empty comb or 

 two. But to say that we "prevent swarm- 

 iiio- by raising' combs of brood into the 

 super" as some have said, is to grasp for a 

 rule where a rule is imwise if not impossi- 

 ble, and miss the spirit of the system. When 

 we find that queen-cells have been built 

 we destroy them; but to speak of prevent- 

 ing swarming l)y ''cutting out the queen- 

 cells'' is to miss the point entirely, for the 

 sort of practice which that implies is noth- 

 ing but locking the stable after the horse is 

 stolen. Perhai)s it is not quite so bad, and 

 a balkv horse mav be better than none at 

 all. 



Treatment for Balky Colonies. 



Unfortunately we do have some balky 



horses — I mean sulky colonies, and that is 



the bearing that the periodical examination 



of the brood-chambers has on the prevention 



fount!, we may again destroy tliem and at- 

 tend to other conditions, and again mark and 

 leave the hive, provided the queen is doing 

 well and the general morale seems good. 

 Where cells with more than eggs are found 

 after we hav(> done our jiart ]>v supjilying 

 room and xcntilation we blami' tlu^ qiuMMi. 

 Hither she transmits to her progeny by hered- 

 ity a swarming tendency, or she is failing 

 and needs to be superseded. She is removed 

 from the hive and a young laying ((ueen is 

 introduced in her place after the colony has 

 built cells for about eight days. That re- 

 queens the colony and settles its swarming 

 notions for another year. It was f^oni P. H. 

 Elwood of New York State that I first got 

 the idea of checking a persistent swarming 

 impulse by taking out the queen, and we 

 have adopted his name for the nucleus we 

 make to give her work, and call it a "take 

 out." A ''take-out" readily grows into a 

 colony for increase, and can be requeened 

 later when there are young queens to spare 

 at the end of the season. 



IJcfdif the brood li 



ill (Mtierged in th<' lower story the qiu'cn is jnit lielow tlic excluder. 



of swarming. To go Ijack a step, we start 

 ((ueeu-reai'iiig operations as early as possible 

 in . the summer, so as to lia\e a batch of 

 young laying queens in nuclei in each yard. 

 This most imi)ortant [lart of the season's op- 

 erations belongs exclusixcly to Miss E. 1>. 

 I'ettit, and I shall not attemjjt to go into de- 

 tails, further than to say that I sincerely 

 hope that we sliall never be subjected again 

 to the necessity of having our queens come 

 to us thru the mails. When on the weekly 

 round colonies are found with eggs in queen 

 cells we consider that the impulse to swaiiii 

 is still insipid, and that ])erliaps supering or 

 \'entilation has been neglected. We destioy 

 all cells that have eggs and cai'c for the otiicr 

 <'onditions, and give the hive a special mark. 

 Next tri)!. if cells with eggs only are again 



I ha\'e tried to present the matlcr of 

 swarm pre\'eutiou, shorn of nia'.ui)ulat ion 

 trimmings, as it appears to me, and may be 

 ]iardone(l for going (tver the ground once 

 again. In our ''locality'' the swarming ini- 

 }tulse is the beekeeper's greatest enemy. The 

 control of disease and winter conditions are 

 (diild's i)lay compared with it. Yet, like all 

 other enemies in agriculture, it is a blessing 

 in disguise. It com])els us to give our colo- 

 nies careful attention. We fight this enemy 

 on two iVonts, selection in breeding, and 

 inani|iulation. While selecting less-swarming 

 drains we also stdect honey-gathering strains 

 and those that carry their honey u])stairs in- 

 steail of crowding tiic (picen. The xcntilatioir 

 and inetlioil of supering wliitdi helji to con 

 trol swarming by promoting colony morale 



