ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION 



105 



stated in one of those articles that it was 

 just as natural to swarm as it was to 

 live, and the swarming impulse was 

 what made bees valuable. I have never 

 gotten away from that idea yet. 



Dr. Miller — Never ceased to be a 

 heretic ! 



Mr. Abbott — The bees that swarm are 

 the bees that do the work. They have 

 the energy and vigor and enthusiasm of 

 all young life. They have the enthusi- 

 asm of a couple that is just founding 

 a new home, and planting shrubs and 

 flowers and things about it, endeavor- 

 ing to develop and make it what a 

 home ought to be. Now bees do the 

 same thing, and are influenced by the 

 same impulses, divine in their nature, 

 planted in their being when the Almighty 

 gave them existence, and it is just as 

 futile for a man to attempt to breed it 

 out as it would be to attempt to stop 

 the sun in its course. It lies in the 

 very foundation of life itself. The first 

 germ of life that existed had in it the" 

 impulse of development and division, 

 separation, and so it has gone on am- 

 plifying and increasing until we have 

 today the endless germs that people this 

 earth, and the planets that "people" the 

 heavens above, and that will go on for- 

 ever. It is all right to make the best 

 of swarming, but bees will always 

 swarm in spite of you. 



Mr. Whitney — The question is. What 

 is the chief cause of swarming? 



Mr. Abbott — The swarming impulse. 



Mr. Whitney — I think Mr. Abbott has 

 hit the nail pretty nearly on the head; 

 but we notice that in some seasons the 

 swarming impulse is a great deal strong- 

 er than it is in others, and it seems to 

 me one of the chief reasons for that 

 has been a close, damp atmosphere, 

 with not quite room enough, or ventila- 

 tion enough, in the hive. Now I think 

 that if one can anticipate the weather, 

 and will give the bees sufficient room, 

 and good ventilation, one can very 

 often break up swarming. 



W. C. Lyman — I have experimented 

 more or less along this line, and I 

 find that if you could eliminate from 

 the colony of bees, that is, from the 

 hive of bees, the young bees — those 

 just hatching, and so on, — the remainder 

 of the colony will seldom swarm, and 

 there are ways that that can be done. 

 Perhaps I will show some of the ways 

 tomorrow — ways in which I have done 

 that. 



Dr. Miller— If it be true that the 



swarming fever is a thing that gives 

 life — ^maybe I don't quote exactly — ^but 

 if it is the grand opportunity, that there 

 is where you get the bees that will do 

 the work, the ones that swarm the most, 

 then we want to encourage swarming, 

 and we want to have a whole lot of 

 other swarms and all such things as 

 that. Now I don't believe a word of it, 

 that it is an instinct that is in all of 

 them, and they will all swarm anyhow, 

 and you can't do anything about it. That 

 is all nonsense. There are plenty of 

 men here today that know that there 

 are certain bees thai will swarm more 

 than others. Take the Carniolan and 

 compare them with other bees, and 

 there is a difference, and in any kind of 

 bees, whether Italians or blacks or what 

 they are, there are certain strains that 

 will swarm more than others. I have 

 tried for a good many years to do a 

 little in the line of breeding from those 

 least inclined to swarm. It may be en- 

 tirely true, and I am not sure but it 

 is. I am a little afraid Mr. Abbott is 

 right when he says you never can get 

 the instinct out entirely, but I believe 

 you can get a whole lot of it out. I 

 know that the past summer — it was a 

 year of failure with me, but I think all 

 will bear me witness that in years of 

 failure there is often as much swarm- 

 ing as in good years — sometimes in good 

 years, when the bees get thoroughly in- 

 terested in storing honey, we have very 

 little swarming. This year I know of 

 but one colony amongst my bees that 

 made any preparation whatever for 

 swarming. I am just as sincere as I 

 can be in the belief that my attempt- 

 ing to breed from those least inclined to 

 swarm made a difference. I don't know 

 how much difference. I believe, though, 

 that it has made a real difference, and 

 that I have less swarming today because 



1 have tried to breed from those bees 

 that did not swarm. If any of the 

 rest of you want swarming, it is all 

 right. I don't want swarming; none 

 of it in mine, if I can get along without 

 it. I know it used to be, and is today, 

 customary to talk about. the enthusiasm 

 there is in seeing the bees flying around, 

 and all that sort of thing. It makes 

 me sick when I see them come out. 



, R. L. Taylor — How poor a season, I 

 would like to ask, did you have? 



Dr. Miller — It was so poor a season 

 that I think I did not get more than 



2 pounds of surplus honey and it was 

 not so bad as it might have been, because 



