Farmers' Bulletin ii98 



swarming can not be expected from 

 the character of the Lives and combs 

 alone. 



INFLUENCE OE LOCALITY AND SEASON 



During some seasons few, if any, 

 colonies attempt to swarm, whereas 

 during other seasons and under simi- 

 lar management a majority of the 

 colonies may prepare to swarm, espe- 

 cially if comb honey is being produced. 

 Generally speaking, bees are expected 

 to swarm less during seasons of mea- 

 ger supply of nectar, whereas many 

 swarms are expected in seasons of 

 plenty ; yet bees often swarm freely 

 when nectar is not abundant and but 

 little when it is abundant. The tend- 

 ency to swarm, therefore, is not nec- 

 essarily directly connected with the 

 quantity of nectar available during the 

 swarming season if a suiHcient sup- 

 ply of food has been available previ- 

 ously to enable the colony to build up 

 to swarming strength. 



Furthermore, in some regions 

 swarming may be troublesome dur- 

 ing most seasons, even after years 

 of careful selection in breeding, to- 

 gether with the best of equipment and 

 management, whereas in other regions 

 bees of almost any strain, when ordi- 

 nary precautions as to equipment and 

 management are taken, are practically 

 nonswarming year after year. Why 

 do bees swarm freely one season and 

 refrain from swarming the next, if 

 both seasons are prosperous, and why 

 do bees in one region habitually swarm 

 excessively, while bees of the same 

 strain, in the same kind of hives, and 

 under similar management, but in 

 another region equally good, swarm 

 little, if any? The answers to these 

 questions are apparently closely con- 

 nected with the rapidity with which 

 the bees build up in the spring, to- 

 gether with the character of the honey 

 flow and the weather conditions dur- 

 ing the swarming season. 



INFLUENCE OP CHARACTER OF SPRING 

 BROOD EEABING 



Throughout the entire country there 

 is a definite period during fall and 

 winter when brood rearing is entirely 

 suspended in all normal colonies. 

 When brood rearing begins again in 

 the spring, if suflBcient food is avail- 

 able, the amount of brood is usually 

 increased until a certain maximum is 

 reached, after which brood rearing 

 declines. When spring brood rearing 

 is most extensive the queen may lay 



more than 3,000 eggs daily, but she 

 does this during a short time only. 

 There is, therefore, a well-marked 

 period of extensive brood rearing in 

 the spring. Apparently this spring 

 expansion of brood rearing is stimu- 

 lated by the oncoming of spring fol- 

 lowing the period of little or no brood- 

 rearing. It is stimulated also by early 

 incoming pollen and nectar, but may 

 occur even when these are lacking, 

 provided a suflicient quantity of honey 

 and pollen is stored in the hives and 

 water is. available. In this respect the 

 spring period of extensive brood rear- 

 ing differs greatly from other periods 

 of more or less extensive brood rear- 

 ing, since after the first great expan- 

 sion in brood rearing the presence of 

 honey stored in the hive is not a suffl; 

 cient' stimulus to cause the bees to 

 rear brood extensively. 



In all regions swarming may be ex-O 

 pected within a well-defined " swarm- \ 

 ing season " which coincides roughly ( 

 with the period of maximum brood ( 

 rearing. When there is a well-markej"^ 

 secondary expansion in brood reading 

 later in the season it may be. accom^ 

 panied by a secondary swarmiug sea- 

 son. When the primary period of 

 maximum brood rearing is prevented 

 because of extreme weakness of the 

 colony, or a dearth of food, .swarm- 

 ing may simply be postponed until a 

 later honey flow and may then be 

 expected as-duringihe normal swarm- 

 ing season. If no period of extensive 

 brood rearing takes place during the 

 season there is usually no swarming. 

 Differences in seasons and differences 

 in localities may modify the rapidity 

 with which brood rearing is carried 

 on, so that the maximum amount of 

 brood may be greater in certain years 

 than in others and greater in certain 

 localities than in others. 



Other things being equal, the ten- 

 dency to swarm is the greatest in 

 those localities in which, on account 

 of climatic conditions and available 

 food, the bees increase brood rearing 

 most rapidly in the spring. In any 

 locality the tendency to swarm is 

 greatest during those years when, be- 

 cause of favorable conditions, the bees 

 build up in the shortest interval in 

 the spring. Among the colonies in 

 the apiary the tendency to swarm is 

 greatest in those colonies which reach 

 their peak of brood rearing most 

 rapidly. When colonies of bees build 

 up so rapidly in the spring that a 

 maximum of 60,000 to 70,000 cells of 

 brood is reached, they have during a 

 certain period a large proportion of 



