FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 177 



tempting- 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 which hold 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 

 today, you are taking away the bees of tomorrow, and of twen- 

 ty more days to come. 



"But the bees that emerge tomorrow do not emerge as 

 field-bees, and will not be fleld-bees until 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 MOST NEEDED. 



While the bees that emerge tomoi'row 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 were 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 different 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 hive 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 ex- 

 tent the necessities of the case rather than the matter of abso- 

 lute age decide what duties a bee shall perform; and the 

 logical conclusion from that is that tbe larger force of bees Ave 



