THE BEE-KEKPERS* REVIEW. 



Si 



prime or second swarms. I take away 

 nearly all of my queens from the ist to 



15th of July, and all of the swarming we 

 have must 1)e at the time the young 

 queens hatch. In one sense, such 

 swarms are not prime swarms, for the 



reason that they are not accompanied by 

 old queens. A prime swaim issues 

 about the time the first queen cells are 

 capped, while tlicsf do not issue until 

 from 4 to 8 days later. Neither are they 

 second swarms, for the reason that they 

 are the first and onl3' swarms that issue 

 from the hive during the season. They 

 are composed partlv of the bees that 

 would go with the prime swarm, and 

 partly of the bees that would issue with 

 the second swarm. I call them neutral 

 swarms. 



ORir.IN OF THK S\V.\RMING FEVER. 



If we make any progress in the preven- 

 tion of swarming, it is necessary that we 

 know where the swarming fever has its 

 origin. A knowledge of this may sim- 

 plify the management of a whole yard. 



The drones and the queens have noth- 

 ing to do with swarming, except that 

 nature has provided that they accompan)- 

 the swarm when it issues. They do not 

 have the swarming fever. If they did, 

 the difficulties arising from swarming 

 would be two-fold what we now have. 

 The swarming fever always has its origin 

 with the bees, and they have it before 

 starting a queen cell. If a colony wishes 

 to swarm when the first queen is hatched, 

 it swarms: if not, when the first young 

 queen is hatched the bees destroy the 

 remaining queen cells. This is all the 

 proof needed to show which part of the 

 colony has the swarming fever. 



YOUNG BEES ARE THE SWARMERS. 



Now let us go one step further. The 

 swarming fever almost invariably has its 

 origin with those bees that are under 75 

 days old. Now we are cornering this 

 subject down to where it rightly belongs. 

 Young bees not old enough to go to the 

 fields are discontented little fellows; 

 still, if the)- can induce the colony to 



swarm, they aie old enough to accom- 

 pany the swarm, and they will doit, too. 

 When bees become old enough to work 

 in the field, they are usually contented. 

 It is almost impossible to create the de- 

 sire to swarm in a colony where all the 

 bees are field-bees. You may say, such a 

 colony is not in a normal condition. 

 That is true; as it has no bees under 12 or 

 15 days old. On the other hand, take a 

 colony of bees that are all under 1 2 days 

 old, and see how easy it is for them to 

 get the swarming fever. 



One man writes: "Why did these col- 

 onies swarm ? They were in eight-frame 

 hives, and were run for comb honey. 

 There were five to six frames containing 

 brood and honey, leaving two to three 

 empty combs in each hive. The section 

 cases were on about three weeks previous 

 to any swarming, yet nearly all swarmed. ' ' 



COLONIES WITH A CERTAIN " BALANCE " 

 DO NOT SWARM. 



Years ago I told a neighbor that one of 

 the first causes of swarming is the over- 

 crowding of the brood-nest with young 

 bees. Such an answer does not fit this 

 case. These colonies have had no need 

 of more rooui. Such swarms are prime 

 swarms. You may think they are in a 

 normal condition, but I can truthfully 

 say they are not properly balanced io hold 

 in check the desire to swarm. For a long 

 time previous to such swarming, the 

 weather has been cold, retarding brood 

 rearing. The old bees that wintered with 

 the colony are gone. Such swarming 

 occurs at the very time when we have 

 the least field bees of any time in the 

 whole season. As the weather becomes 

 warm, the young bees begin hatching 

 rapidly, and, as I said before, the desire 

 to swarm arises with the young bees. 

 The conditions for swarming are the 

 most favorable that it is possible to have. 

 There are not field bees enough to furnish 

 ccork for all these young bees. If you 

 give to such colonies one pound of field 

 bees, before they get the swarming fever, 

 to balance up such colonies, you will 



