ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 69 



Increase^ It^ Mafaagemeiit and 



L^ p>iHERE are two classes of bee-keepers who desire to prevent 

 increase in the number of their colonies. The first, and by 

 far the larger class, own large home-apiaries, and prefer 

 surplus to increase. This class can allow swarming; if, by 

 some simple manipulation, the number of colonies can be kept the 

 same, and the bees induced to devote their energies to the storing 

 of honey. The second class are the owners of out-apiaries; and 

 while they may not be so particular about preventing increase, they 

 do wish to prevent swarming. This accomplished, the out-apiaries 

 can be left alone, except at stated intervals. 



In reply to the question, "Why do bees swarm ?" it has been re- 

 plied that "It is natural." "It is their method of increase." This 

 may be true, in part, but it is not a satisfactory answer. I have 

 never known a season to pass in which all of the colonies in my 

 apiary swarmed or else didn't swarm. One year I had 75 colonies. 

 They were worked for comb honey. Forty of them swarmed; thirty- 

 five of them didn't. It would have been just as "natural," just as 

 much "according to nature," for one colony to swarm as for another. 

 In Gleanings for 1.889 there was quite a lengthy discussion in regard 

 to the causes that led to swarming. The chit of the discussion 

 seemed to be that an undue proportion of young or nurse-bees to the 

 brood to be nursed was the prime cause of swarming. If the brood- 

 nest be well-filled with brood, then for lack of room the bees begin 

 storing honey in the cells from which the bees are hatching, the 

 result is that soon there is but little brood to care for, compared with 



