168 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



attempting to swarm, and such colonies are the very ones that 

 give the best yields, and forced swarming would be practiced 

 upon them only at a loss. 



DISADVANTAGE OF FORCED SWARMING. 



With all the advantage forced swarming has over natural 

 swarming, it still leaves something to be desired. As already 

 said, those colonies wliieh liold their force intact throughout the 

 entire season are the ones that give the best results. It is true 

 that in forced swarming the entire force of bees may be left on 

 the old stand, but there are thousands of prospective bees in the 

 brood taken away. If you take away that brood to-day, you 

 are taking away the bees of tomorrow, and of twenty more days 

 to come. 



" But the bees that emerge to-morrow do not emerge as 

 field-bees, and will not be field-bees till they are sixteen days 

 old. If the harvest closes in sixteen days the additional force 

 will only be a lot of useless consumers." While the first part of 

 your statement may be true enough, I cannot say as much for 

 the second. 



BEES DO THE WORK HOST NEEDED. 



While the bees that emerge to-morrow may do no field-work 

 for sixteen days, they begin housework at a very tender age — 

 housework that would have to be continued by older bees if 

 this brood weie taken away. As fast as one of these young 

 bees is ready to begin housework, it takes the place of an older 

 bee, which can now go afield. I know that, as a general rule, 

 the difiierent departments of work are done by bees of certain 

 ages, but I also know that bees accommodate themselves to 

 circumstances. I have seen bees at five days old carrying in 

 pollen because there were no older bees in the liive to perform 

 that duty, and we all know that in early spring nursing and 

 housework are done by bees several months old. 



So it is reasonable to believe that at least to a certain extent 

 the necessities of the case rather than the matter of absolute age 

 decides what duties a bee shall perform; and the logical con- 

 clusion from that is that the larger force of bees we have in a 



