6 BEEKEEPING IN TASMANIA. 
for bee food in spring, take one and a half parts of water to one of sugar. Pouring 
the sugar slowly into the water and stirring it till all is dissolved. Hot water is 
best, but it must be allowed to cool before feeding to the bees. For winter use, 
equal parts of water and sugar. Every hive should have a fertile queen and enough 
bees to fairly well cover at least two or three combs. If more than this all the better. 
If any hives are found queenless at this time, they! should be marked for a further | 
examination when all the colonies have been overhauled. Where a number of 
stocks are kept there are generally at this period of the year some which may be 
weak in bees, though they may have a fertile queen. These queens may often be 
used to replace unfertile ones in hives that contain more bees. To transfer. the 
queen it is first of all necessary to find and remove the one which is to be replaced. 
The following day, towards evening for preference, the small stock with the fertile 
queen is placed alongside.’ Both lots are smoked moderately, and the combs with 
brood and bees from both put into one hive alternately, so that each comb from 
one ‘is between two from the other hive. , 
The outside combs of both are put into the other hive body and then placed 
on top of the first, the bees brushed off the combs, and the latter and the hive 
body removed. If uniting is done later in the season the second body and: combs 
‘may be left on as a super. Another method of uniting which the writer has prac- 
tised for a long time, and with much success, is as follows:—Remove the cover or 
one hive and cover the frames with a sheet of paper; then place the other body, 
bees, frames and all, on top. This should be done at night, when the bees have 
ceased flying for the day. The top colony will then be confined in their brood 
chamber, and will commence to gnaw the paper away; and in 90 or more cases in 
a hundred, by the time this has been done the bees will agree without fighting. 
If there is any preference as to the queens, kill the one not desired before uniting, 
otherwise leave them alone, and the bees will settle the matter of queens them- 
selves. 
; SwaRMING. 
This is a natural impulse with bees and the means of multiplying the species. 
In Tasmania swarming occurs from October to about the middle of January, the 
middle of November to end of December being the principal swarming period in 
most districts. Swarms will occur in some years even earlier and later than the 
times given above. The principal inducements for bees to swarm are generally— 
(1) crowded conditions of the bees, (2) the presence of large numbers of drones, 
(3) an old or failing queen. Swarming time is usually an exciting time both for 
the beekeeper and the bees. Swarms will vary in size, according to the time of 
the year, from say 3 lb. to as much as 8 or 10 lb. If the beekeeper is at all anxious 
as to the time when he expects swarms, he will need to examine his hives now 
and then after the spring has fairly opened, and as the population of the hive 
increases and honey: and pollen commence to come in freely, the bees will prepare 
for swarming by commencing to build queen cells. These are easily seen, as the 
are very much larger than either drone or worker cells. The building of these 
cells is an indication that the bees are thinking of. swarming, and this they do 
usually as soon as the first royal cells are completed, but not always so, as weather 
ccnditions may induce them to hold off for a day or two. If too much increase 
is not desired, swarming may be controlled somewhat by eutting out the queen 
cells every six or eight days, and giving plenty of room. The bees should never 
feel that they are overcrowded if honey production is the chief object. If increase 
of swarms is desired, too much extra room should not be given, thus crowding the 
bees, and, as it were, compelling them to swarm. When swarming the new loa: 
will in most cases circle around for a short time and then settle on any small wee A 
or limb of a tree and in a compact mass. As soon as they cluster they should be 
