I'HE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



223 



The Prevention of Swarming. 



If there could be discovered some way to 

 prevent swarming, or, to be more exact, the 

 desire to swarm, it would be one of the most 

 advantageous accomplishments that could 

 possibly be placed in the hands of bee-keep- 

 ers. Even so conservative a man as James 

 Heddon believes that swarming is simply a 

 habit brought about by environments, and 

 that this habit may be bred out by a change 

 in environments and by selection in breed- 

 ing. Here is what he nas to say on this im- 

 portant subject in the last issue of his 

 Quarterly. 



" To those who would make money in our 

 business there is probably no problem con- 

 nected with it of more importance than that 

 of swarming. How simple a matter it would 

 be for us to place 10, 20, 40 or 100 colonies or 

 more, in a place, giving plenty of surplus 

 room to each and driving around with our 

 big spring honey wagon two or three times 

 during the season and taking off loads of 

 surplus honey. But alas ! bees have an in- 

 stinct directly contrary to the above prolit- 

 able proceeding, for just about as the col- 

 onies become so strong that they can do 

 good work, out comes almost the entire 

 working force and away they go if we are 

 not there to look after them and you aie 

 aware reader that to be constantly on hand, 

 either in person or by proxy, is very expen- 

 sive. 



For the past number of years we ha e been 

 experimenting in the line of accomplishing 

 our ideal with regard to the above subject. 

 We have never had faith in any macliinery 

 or manufacture for the prevention of 

 swarming, so called. However, that is a mis- 

 nomer, for, the various rattle-traps that cost 

 money to build, time to manipulate and hin- 

 drance to the btes, are not non-swarmers, 

 correctly speaking, but rather are intended 

 to take care of the swarms that issue. They 

 do not do it and even if they did the colony 

 which develops the swarming mania and 

 then by some contrivance is foiled in the at- 

 tempt to divide, never does the good work 

 of one in which the swarming tendency has 

 been prevented. The traps designed to 

 catch the swarms and hold thena until the 

 apiarist arrives do not fultill the require- 

 ments above referred to and the self hivers 

 are costly, cumbersome and ineffective. 



We have experimented in the line of breed- 

 ing out the swarming tendency, a theory 

 which is by no means new but which has 

 never before been followed diligently and 

 in harmony with our ideas of correct princi- 

 ple, that we know of. We will pause to tell 

 you the theory upon which we base our be- 

 lief and work. As usual we must begin with 

 evolution, the true theory of all develop- 

 ment. Bees do not swarm because some 

 one or something intended it as the means 

 of maintainance of species, but from other 

 causes, and the species happens to survive 

 because of this swarming impulse. To find 

 the origin of this impulse we go back over 



a period of thousands of generations of the 

 bee in her native state with nature. As we 

 have her in America she is neither in that 

 condition nor country nor is she dependent 

 upon swarming for her survival. In a state 

 of nature it happened that the domicile of a 

 colony of bees was so limited in its capacity 

 that their instinct to store up riches and re- 

 produce their individual numbers could not 

 both be accommodated, and this environ- 

 ment became the author of disaffection, and 

 dissatisfaction, ending in a quarrel, finally 

 ending in swarming. This is the way it 

 happened and if it had not happened in that 

 way the species would now be extinct as 

 many others are. The above named condi- 

 tions fitted our race of honey bees to sur- 

 vive, and for that reason we are bee-keepers. 

 Now when the apiarist first takes charge of 

 colonies of bees and manipulates them in 

 such a way as to remove all the above enumer- 

 ated causes of swarming, they still swarm, 

 and then the question comes, from what 

 cause do they do it. ? If the answer be prop- 

 erly understood it can be given in the one 

 word, habit. Now according to the above 

 theory all that would be necessary to do 

 would be to keep constantly removed each 

 and every one of the original causes of 

 swarming, breeding iiueens from such col- 

 onies as first lose the swarming instinct 

 until filially they forget the habit when every 

 cause is removed, and we fail to find effect 

 without cause. Now some of you will say, 

 ' this all reasons out well and I think I have 

 heard something about it before but I am 

 not aware that anyone is succeeding in prac- 

 tice.' Let us say to our readers that if we 

 were not succeeding in practice this article 

 would never been written. We have made it 

 the leader of this issue because in our prac- 

 tice we have verified the truth of our theory. 

 We are now reminded of what has been 

 written about our mechanical inventions. 

 ' Verily there is nothing new under the sun,' 

 and yet verily there are enough new combi- 

 nations and applications of old dreams, im- 

 aginations, and guesses, to change, as with a 

 magic wand, the useless to the useful. We 

 will now attempt to describe our method 

 and give you the result. 



The first thing is to see to it that the queen 

 always has plenty of room in which to exer- 

 cise the full scope of her fecundity. While of 

 much advantage for other reasons, we be- 

 lieve it to be favorable to breeding out the 

 swarming impulse to prevent the rearing of 

 drones, and this we do almost to perfection, 

 by keeping only worker comb in the hive. 

 However, the dozen hives in which we pur- 

 posely rear many drones, do not swarm. 

 Next make the home of the bees as pleasant 

 as possible if you wish to keep them at home. 

 In this regard out bees do not differ from 

 our boys and girls. Keep the hives thorough- 

 ly shaded and give every colony plenty of 

 room in which to store surplus honey as 

 well as in which the queen may breed. 

 These are all the requirements needed, but 

 it must be understood that the work must be 

 persisted in for a number of years. We first 

 remove the original causes, continuing in 

 which we remove the habit or instinctive 

 memory of swarming. Colonies bred up to 



