372 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June, 1922 



tendency to swarm when there is but little 

 if any excuse for it. 



Lack of sufficient room is generally rec- 

 ognized as contributing to the tendency to 

 swarm. As a rule, colonies in large hives . 

 swarm less than colonies in small hives. For- 

 merly much was said about colonies of bees 

 established in attics never swarming, be- 

 cause such colonies had the whole attic for 

 a hive. But swarms do issue from colonies 

 housed in attics and other large cavities, 

 and have been known to issue from colonies 

 established under the eaA'es of buildings, 

 having the whole out-of-doors for a hive. 

 Swarms sometimes issue from the largest of 

 hives, even when tiered up five or six stories 

 high. I have seen swarms issue from two- 

 story hives having 20 combs in which only 

 four or five frames contained brood, the 

 rest of the combs being practically empty 

 and not occupied by the little colony. While 

 large hives and an abundance of room in the 

 form of good empty comb greatly reduce 

 swarming, they do not prevent it in all lo- 

 calities every season. 



It has been said that bees swarm because 

 of the honey flow, which makes them feel 

 sufliciently prosperous to divide the colony 

 and build a new home. In the North swarm- 

 ing does usually come during the early honey 

 flow; but in some localities, .especially in the 

 South, swarming occurs before the main 

 honey flow, swarms sometimes issuing when 

 the colonies are gathering scarcely enough 

 for a living. In some places swarming 

 ceases entirely on the arrival of the honey 

 flow. While the honey flow often influences 

 swarming, it can not be considered the cause 

 of swarming. 



Some thought that the presence of drones 

 caiises swarming. Working on this theory 

 Aspinwall, many years ago, constructed 

 wooden combs by drilling holes into the 

 ends of blocks of wood to form the cells in 

 order to have all cells of worker size to pre- 

 vent the rearing of drones. After years of 

 research along this line he abandoned this 

 theory of the cause of swarming and took 

 up another theory to be mentioned later, 

 which finally resulted in the invention of a 

 non-swarming hive. In this hive instead of 

 eliminating the drones he provided wide 

 spaces between the combs, inserting in these 

 spaces slatted dividers to prevent comb- 

 building in the wide spaces. 



Old queens have been put forth as the 

 cause of swarming. Some said that the old 

 queen becomes broody in her second year. 

 Others said that a queen, after laying so 

 many eggs in the spurt of spring brood-rear- 

 ing, becomes tired and seeks a rest by 

 swarming. 



At one time it was believed by many that 

 a queen does not swarm during the first sea- 

 son of her life, and several beekeepers in 

 the North tried to prevent swarming by re-, 

 queening their colonies in the spring with 

 young queens from the South — only to find 

 that many colonies so treated swarmed, 



though, of course, they no doubt had less 

 swarming because of the young queens. 



Much of the trouble from swarming in 

 colonies having old queens, is no doubt from 

 supersedure during the swarming season 

 when colonies often apparently depart from 

 the original plan of supersedure and swarm 

 because queen-cells are present. In many 

 respects such swarming is quite different 

 from normal swarming. 

 Influence of Age of Queen Upon Swarming. 



Gravenhorst laid down the rule that a col- 

 ony having a laying queen reared this sea- 

 son will not swarm this season, provided the 

 queen was reared in this colony. If she 

 was reared elsewhere, the colony may swarm 

 this season. But we know that if the old 

 queen is removed at swarming time and all 

 queen-cells (if any) are destroyed, then all 

 queen-cells again destroyed ten days later, 

 a young laying queen from another colony 

 may be given a few days later with the 

 same safety from further swarming as if the 

 young queen had been reared in this colony. 

 The important thing to note here is that 

 when a young queen is reared in this colony 

 this year, there is (except in some cases of 

 supersedure) an interval of at least 16 days 

 during which no eggs are laid. When a 

 similar break in brood-rearing is brought 

 about by removing the queen, it does not 

 make any difference whether the young 

 queen is reared in this colony or elsewhere, 

 so far as swarming is concerned. Even when 

 the old queen is given back to the colony 

 after 16 days, there is usually no further 

 swarming. Apparently the condition of the 

 colony brought about by the period of queen- 

 lessness has more to do with the prevention 

 of swarming than the age of the queen. 

 How Young Bees Contribute to Swarming. 



Gerstung, a German investigator, put 

 forth the theory that swarming is brought 

 on by a preponderance of young bees. This 

 fits in well with the well-known fact that 

 the swarming tendency is strongest early in 

 the season when young bees are emerging in 

 greatest numbers. This theory would also 

 explain why colonies are willing to give up 

 swarming when their brood is taken away 

 as in artificial swarming, as well as why 

 the swarming impulse disappears completely 

 about 20 days after removing the queen 

 when the dequeening plan is used to prevent 

 swarming. Using this theory as a basis, 

 comb-honey producers about 20 years ago 

 worked out plans by wliich the brood and 

 youngest bees were taken from the colony 

 at swarming time, kept in a separate hive 

 until old enough to do field work and then 

 returned to the main colony. Producers of 

 extracted honey, instead of putting the 

 brood and young bees into a separate hive, 

 placed the chamber containing the brood 

 above the queen-excluder, the queen being 

 confined below, thus separating the young 

 and emerging bees from the colony below. 

 In 1908 E. E. Coveyou advised placing the 

 chamber of emerging bees above the supers 



