10 



When a stock has so increased in numbers that the beea have 

 not room enough to work, a swarm or new 

 11. Swarms. colony is sent out, provided that there are 

 embryo queens in the hive to take the place 

 of the old one, who will leave with the first swarm, which con- 

 sists chiefly of the older bees. Although only one new queen 

 is required at a time, the workers often have as many as ten 

 to fifteen queen cells in the hive. Itahan and Carniolan bees, 

 or bees crossed with those strains, are particularly disposed to 

 raise a large number of queens. When the most advanced of 

 the young queens is about to emerge from her cell, the old 

 queen attempts to destroy her; but if the bees intend to 

 swarm they do not permit this, and the queen and bees 

 if the hive get into a very excited state ; hundreds of 

 bees fly about near the hive, and finally the old queen leaves 

 with a swarm consisting of some thousands of bees, taking with 

 them sufficient provisions to last about four days. After circling 

 about in the air for a few minutes they settle on some 

 suitable object, usually a bush or the branch of a tree, and there 

 await the return of scouts, which have previously been sent 

 out to find suitable quarters for the new colony. The bee- 

 keeper should then get the main body of the bees, with the 

 queen, into a hive as soon as possible (76), for if he waits until 

 the scouts return, the bees that have settled will rise and follow 

 the scouts to a distance of perhaps several miles. The stock 

 from which a swarm has issued, though it consists of the 

 younger bees, is called the " parent stock," and, as a rule, pro- 

 vides very little surplus honey after the swarm has left. A 

 strong natural swarm would weigh about four pounds : and 

 would contain about 4,000 to 6,000 bees per pound in weight ; 

 the number of bees per pound, varying according to the amount 

 of food store they carry. 



When the oldest of the young queens comes out of her cell, she 



will if permitted kill her younger sister 



12. Casts. queens. If prevented from doing so, she 



will quit the hive with a swarm consisting 



of the strongest of the bees remaining after the ' ' top ' ' swarm 



has left r this generally takes place on the eighth or ninth 



day after the " top " swarm has left, and this after swarm is 



called a " cast." If not checked, this may be repeated again 



and again as each young queen leaves its cell, and perhaps 



several queens hatched out on the same day will leave the hive 



with one cast. In this latter case, if the cast is hived, all the 



queens except one will be killed. 



As repeated swarming exhausts the parent stock, rendering it 

 absolutely unprofitable for a long period, 

 13. Prevention of it should be prevented ; this can be done 

 Casts. effectually by adopting the practices recom- 



mended in paragraphs (95) and (96) for the 

 treatment of swarms. If, however, this cannot be done, owing 

 to the sale or loss of the top swarm, all queen cells except one 



