CHAPTER VII 



INCREASE 



One of the perplexing problems to the beginner is that of 

 securing increase without loss of a honey crop. The control of 

 natural swarming is probably the most difficult problem that 

 the bee-keeper has to solve in the average locality. Certain plans 

 will work all right for several years, until the bee-keeper begins 

 to congratulate himself on having learned the secret, when sud- 

 denly they will swarm in spite of the best possible attention and 

 once the swarming fever is on they are likely to keep it up until 

 he is nearly beside himself. 



Natural Swarming. — There has been much written about 

 why bees swarm, and the control of conditions that lead to 

 swarming. It should be remembered that with bees and other 

 social insects the community is the unit, rather than the indi- 

 vidual. The workers are incapable of reproduction, and accord- 

 ingly no matter how great an increase there may be in their 

 numbers in a hive, it is but temporary, and makes no permanent 

 difference in perpetuation of the species. Swarming is then the 

 expression of the instinct of procreation or increase. 



Normally, the bees will swarm at about the height of the 

 honey flow, when natural conditions favor the establishment of 

 the new colony. As a rule, nearly enough honey will have been 

 brought to the old hive to carry the colony through the winter, and 

 at this season the new swarm will be able to establish itself with 

 a minimum of danger. While the natural effect tends toward 

 the safety of the bees, the practical effect to the bee-keeper is to 

 divide his colonies at the time when greatest profit may accrue 

 from large colonies, and resiilts in increase of bees at the expense 

 of the honey crop. The thing the bee-keeper should strive to 

 do is to make his increase either before the honey flow begins 

 or when it is nearly over, so that he will get both increase and 

 a crop. 

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