THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



8.S 



put tlieni in No. igo; puttini^ them on 

 the south side of the hive. 



The five combs on the north siile of the 

 hive contained the orij^inal cohmy. I 

 was surprised at the difference in_ color 

 between ihose five-banded bees and the 

 hybrids. Now, vou will notice that col- 

 ony No. 36 had the swarming fever 

 piTi'ioiis to takiiii^ away the queen. I 

 closed hive No. 190, and thought nothing 

 more of it. On the fourth day after this 

 I was in the yard, and I saw No. 36 was 

 swarming — just what I expected. I turn- 

 ed around, and No. 190 was sivarmivg I 

 I had not expected this. The swarms 

 went together in the air, and both 

 clustered on the same limb. I opened 

 hive No. i>,o, and found the queen and 

 nearly all of \\\ose Jive-banded bees on the 

 same five combs, just as I had left them 

 four days previous. 



The three combs taken from No. 36 

 were completely descried, with not a 

 queen cell on them. The two colonies 

 had remained apart just as nicely as 

 though a division board had been between 

 them, and there were hardly any of those 

 five-banded bees in the cluster. 



There were two things happened that I 

 must understand: First, why did the\- 

 not unite, although they occupied the 

 same hive four day.-i? Second, why did 

 No. 36 swarm although divide<l into two 

 parts, one on each side of the yard — 

 and they did swarm at ih^siDue i)istant? 

 I find It difficult to unite two parts of 

 two different colonies, one having the 

 swarming fever and the other not. I 

 should noi have di.-.c<jvered this, hail I 

 not tried uniting two different strains of 

 bees that 1 couM distinguish one from 

 the other. 



THE '• .SW.\RMI.NG I'EVKR " NOT A 



FEVER, BUT .\ SE.^SOX OF REST. 



Before we go any farther, I wish to ex- 

 plain two things: First, I use the word 

 fever, or swarming fever, to represent the 

 time from the begining of the first pre- 

 paration forswamniig up tu the time the 

 swarm issues. I hardly believe it exact. 



ly fits this ca«e. A fever is a disease, it 

 expresses agitation. The swarming fever 

 is ;/(;/ a disease — it is a natural condition, 

 and does,not express agitation and excile- 

 nunt. On the other hand, while the bees 

 are in this condition they are quiet; they 

 are realh- resting — storing up energy and 

 vilalit)- in preparation for establishing a 

 new home. Second: Bees do not have 

 the swarming impulse, and carry it around 

 with them a week or ten days. The 

 swarming impulse is the very bt-ginning 

 of the act to swarm, and it strikes th'. 

 whole colony. 



Let me refer you to a case of abnormal 

 swarming — and I have had ni)- share of it. 

 Take a case where the bees swarm right 

 out. They have made no preparation to 

 swarm; they have had no attack of the 

 swarming fever; yet they had the ini- 

 pitlseXo swarm and the}- Sicarined. In 

 this case the act of swarming is natural, 

 but the conditions causing it are unnat- 

 ural. 



Now I will answer that question. Let 

 us take a colony of bees where the queen 

 has lieen taken away ten days previous. 

 "They must have the swarming fever." 

 We will divide that colony into two parts. 

 We will call the bees with the swarming 

 ftrver one part and those unhalched queen 

 cells the other part. We will now destroy 

 those queen cells. We have destroyed 

 only one of the separate parts of that col- 

 ony, and have left the bees luilh the 

 swarming fever. Now, when a colony 

 has the sv\arming fever, they start queen 

 cells. Those queen cells and the fever 

 grow and develop in unison, and nature 

 has so managed that when the fever has 

 run its course, and the impulse to swarm 

 strikes the bees, the fiibt cells started 

 have developed a ciiieen and she is ready 

 to go wiih the swarm. Let us go back to 

 those Colonies run for comb honey, where 

 I destroyed all the cells butuiie. 



In case of prime swarms, the bees 

 usually start qucen cells a number of days 

 previous tu svsarming, and they wtn' start 

 cells four da\t. <?/?<';■ swarming. It means 

 several days from the hatching of the 



