MATUKAL SWARMlUa. 29 



CHAPTER V. 



Natural Swarming. 



TIME OF — CAUSE OF — SECTJBIN» A SWAEM — WHEN TO EEMOVE 



TO STAND — PEESENCB OE ABSENCE OF QUEEN SIGNS OF 



PACKING SWAEMS FOE JOUENEY INTEODUCINa TO FEAMB 



HIVES — TO HIVES WITH FIXED LE&S SWAEM WITH LOST 



QUEEN QUEEN CELLS PIPING — CAUSE OF SIGNS OF CAST- 

 ING VALUE OF OASTS OFTEN FLY PAE TEBATMENT OF 



WHEN QUEEN IS LOST OASTS BUILD WOEKBE COMB ONLY. 



As the spring advances, food continues to come in abundantly ; stocks 

 that have passed the winter well begin to grow very numerous, and usually 

 in this coimtry in May or June make preparation for founding a new 

 colony, or, in bee parlance, swarming. Many beekeepers entertain the 

 notion that swarming is merely the direct result of want of room, the 

 teeming throng from overcrowding being driven to divide into two commu- 

 nities, but this idea is found upon experience to be incorrect,* while a careful 

 consideration of some analogies in natural history would have shown the 

 cause of swarming to lie much deeper, as we intend to point out in our 

 larger book now in hand. Space and our title " Practical Beekeeping " 

 both forbid any dilation on this point here. The swarm takes with it the 

 old queen, and preparations are usually commenced for providing her 

 successor for the parent stock some days before the swarm leaves. If, there- 

 fore, a colony of bees in the spring has advancing queen cells (see Fig. 29) 

 while the old queen is stiU amongst them, it may be concluded that, 

 the weather being favourable, swarming will not be long delayed. On 

 the morning of the day fixed for departure the hive will show but 

 little activity, while at the door of others the workers are busily 

 thronging in and out. Some teU ns that a signal within must be given, 

 since all the teeming thousands seem to be seized with some violent agita- 

 tion ; but of this we know nothing, except that the bees about to forsake 

 the place of their nativity for "pastures new," commence to run about 



* Stocks having "built in a cottage roof or a church tower, and having almost 

 unlimited space, have been observed to throw off swarms with about the same 

 regularity as those restricted hy hives. 



