170 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



jirevent the possibility of swarming. It was a no less radical 

 measure than to keep the colony queenless. I reasoned that as 

 I had never had a queen hatched inside of eleven days from the 

 time the queen was taken away, or from the time the bees 

 started queen-cells, the colony was safe from swarming if once 

 in ten days I took away their brood and gave them fresh; also, 

 that it was only bees over two weeks old that worked in the 

 field ; add to this the three weeks that it took from the egg to the 

 full-fledged worker, and it was five weeks or more from the 

 time the egg was laid till the bee became a gatherer. Clearly, 

 then, only such bees as came from eggs laid five weeks or more 

 before the close of the honey harvest were available as gatherers. 

 Why not have the colony queenless during this five weeks? So 

 I took away the queen, leaving in the hive three combs, one of 

 wliich contained eggs and brood in all stages, the other two 

 containing nothing from which queen-cells could be started. 



( )iice in ten days the comb of young brood with its queen- 

 cells was taken away and a fresh one given them, and at the 

 close of the five weeks, which was about the close of the harvest, 

 the queen was returned. 



NOT A SUCCESS. 



As a preventive of swarming, it was a complete success. 

 Xot one colony thus treated swanned ; how could it 1 As a 

 means of securing a large crop, I think it was an egregious 

 failure; although I can hardly tell with great deflniteness,' the 

 season itself being a failure. Possibly the absence of the queen 

 itself had something to do with lessening their stores, but I 

 doubt it. But when all combs of brood but one were taken 

 away, a large force of prospective bees were taken away that 

 would have hatched out in the next twenty-one days. 



Tf I had allowed four or five frames of brood, changing 

 every ten days, the result might have been quite different. 

 Moreover, the one frame they did have was, for the most part, 

 filled with brood so young, that little or none of it hatched while 

 in the hive. If I should try any tiling in the same line again, 

 I should keep four or five frames in the hive, and this should 

 be mainly brood well advanced so that much of it would hatch 

 out to replenish the wasting numbers. 



