PREVENTION OF NATURAL SWARMING. 233 
hatch, are filled with honey as fast as they are vacated, they 
feel the necessity of emigrating, especially as the constant 
hatching workers add daily to their large population. The 
building of additional combs, by a part of the bees, is some- 
times insufficient to keep them from making preparations 
for swarming, as it does not give employment to all. The 
reader must remember that in a good colony, at this season, 
there are between 50,000 and 120,000 bees, according to 
the laying capacity of the queen and the size of the breed- 
ing room. There is also an additional increase over mor- 
tality of perhaps 2,000 bees daily. In spite of the admira- 
ble order of these wonderful little insects, there cannot help 
be more or less crowding, unless there is ample room in the 
combs. 
455. If some of the bees decide that they are too 
crowded, queen-cells are raised (104) and the colony gets 
what Apiarists call the ‘‘ swarming fever.’’ It is a very ap- 
propriate name indeed, since the so-called fever is cured 
only by swarming. In some extraordinary seasons, after 
this ‘‘ swarming fever’’ has taken possession of their little 
brains, no amount of room given, even by dividing (470) 
will prevent them from executing their purpose, unless the 
weather and the honey crop become unfavorable. We have 
repeatedly, in such seasons, divided a colony into several 
nuclei (520) without avail, each nucleus swarming in spite 
of its weakness. 
456. 2d. The heat of the Summer sun, which alone would 
not cause them to swarm, hastens their preparations, when 
the bees are disposed to emigrate. 
457. 3d. The hatching of a great number of drones 
(189)—due to an excess of drone-comb (224.) in the brood 
chamber, in which the queen has deposited eggs,—is also 
an incitation to the ‘‘swarming fever.’’ These big, burly, 
noisy fellows help to make the already crowded comb quite 
uncomfortable. This is why a great many bee-keepers of 
