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cells is a help ; but this requires considerable work, and since it 

 frequently fails in spite of every care it is not usually relied on. 



The occurrence of swarming is largely due to overcrowded brood- 

 chambers ; hence give the queen plenty of room to lay. A suitable 

 plan is to give a new brood-chamber comprising two drawn combs and 

 the rest frames of foundation. Secure the queen and confine her in this 

 new chamber below a queen-excluder, placing the old brood-nests 

 directly above, thus giving additional work for the young bees and 

 plenty of room for the queen to lay. If for some reason this plan is 

 not desirable, the brood may be equalized by robbing the. stronger 

 colonies for the benefit of the weaker. 



A young queen in the hive is an outstanding factor of success, 

 as bees are rarely inclined to swarm with a young queen if they have 

 reared her themselves under natural conditions. This feature, however, 

 is not always satisfactory to the beekeeper, as he frequently buys young 

 queens in large numbers from a queen-breeder. He still has to contend 

 against the swarming impulse, although in a lesser degree. A beekeeper 

 rearing his own stock should select not only prolific queens to produce 

 from, but those that have previously shown the least tendency to 

 swarm. There are also other reasons why young queens should be 

 employed, and the practice of introducing them in the spring before 

 the swarming season commences, at intervals of not longer than two 

 years, is a very excellent one. Autumn introduction is also commend- 

 able, as the full tide of a queen's maturity is gained from the commence- 

 ment of the following spring. In order to follow the lives of the mothers 

 as closely as possible and avoid mistakes, some system of recording 

 the various ages must be employed. In addition, notes should be taken 

 of their general behaviour, such as tendency to swarm, prolificness, 

 and gentleness. Such notes will prove of great value in selecting a 

 mother of future queens. 



Ventilation also plays an important part in controlling the natural 

 inclination to swarming, and care should be taken to provide sufficient 

 at all times of the season. A well-known and effective method is to 

 place blocks i in. in height under the two front comers of the brood- 

 chamber. In the very flush of the honey-flow additional ventilation 

 may be given by drawing one of the supers forward over the rest, which 

 forms two additional entrances and permits the workers to escape to 

 the field without having to traverse the whole depth of the hive. 



No single system will be found universally effective. Climatic con- 

 ditions also frequently play an important part in bee-behaviour. It 

 will, however, be found that the methods here given, or variations of 

 the same, employed either singly or in combination, will materially 

 assist in the prevention of swarming. 



Prevention of After-swarming. 

 In many cases a prime or first swarm is desirable, and in others 

 they often issue in spite of all precautions. It is a simple matter to 

 hive the swarm, but to combat the results in the parent colony arising 

 from this condition entails special action. Persistent after-swarming 

 is one of the discouraging features of natural increase, and is often hard 

 to stop. A good plan is to place the swarm on the old location, 

 removing the parent colony to a new stand some distance away. The 

 immediate result is for all the flying bees to join the swarm, and thus 

 the parent colony is still further weakened ; this encourages them to 

 tear down all queen-cells but one, or to destroy all embryo queens after 

 the first young queen has emerged from her cell. 



