Iji e-lieej)ing in Victoria. 35 



are near a dwelling from which a view of them can be obtained, or the 

 number of colonies is sufficient to keep a special watch on them during 

 swarming hours. The illustration shows a hive to which the swarm 

 has returned after losing the queen. 



VIII. — Swarming. 



Swarming is a natural impulse with bees, and the means of multiplying 

 the species. In Victoria it occurs from September till December, October 

 being the principal swarming month in most localities. 



In abnormal seasons, when copious rains succeed a period of drought, 

 swarming may take place a second time in January or February. 



To the beginner the issue of swarms is a source of delight, and the 

 most convenient way of increasing the number of his colonies. When, 

 liowever, stocks have increased to the number intended to be kept, or to 

 what the locality will carry with profit to the owner, then swarming be- 

 comes a trouble, involving a considerable amount of unprofitable work, 

 and unless it is counteracted by re-uniting of swarmed stocks may result in 

 the loss of all surplus honey. This is particularly so in districts having a 

 plentiful supply of pollen in spring and a honey flow in early summer only. 

 Taking as an illustration two colonies of equal strength, and assuming that 

 one swarms several times, and that the other does not swarm at all, the 

 worker force of the former is broken up into two, three, or more com- 

 munities, none of which is in a condition to store surplus honey for a 

 month or longer, because the parent colony is depleted of field bees by the 

 issue of one or more swarms. The young queen, hatched after the swarm 

 left, does not commence to lay for fourteen to twenty-one days, and this 

 interruption in the succession of bee generations seriously affects the storing 

 oi honey later on, while every swarm put down in a separate hive has first 

 to build sulficient comb to fill the frames of the lower story, establish a 

 brood-nest, and accumulate stores before it is in a condition to store surplus 

 honey. This point, at whitH productiveness commences, is in some locali- 

 ties, such as the country surrounding Melbourne, not reached till the main 

 honey flow is practically over, and for the remainder of the season the bees 

 are only able to gather sufficient to maintain themselves, and sometimes not 

 enough to last them through the winter. In the following season the 

 colonies which survived will again undergo division by swarming, little or 

 no honey will be obtained, and the owner will come to the conclusion that 

 bees are not profitable in his locality. It should be understood that_ in- 

 crease of colonies always takes place at the expense of honey production, 

 except in exceptionally good bee-country, with a late honey flow ; but in 

 passing it may be mentioned that in Spring bees are as much a saleable 

 commodity as honey, that apiarists in the best honey ^ districts of the 

 State purchase swarms in large numbers, and that in localities better suited 

 to the breeding of bees than the production of honey better profits may 

 be obtained by the sale of bees than of honey. 



Taking now the case of a colony which does not swarm at all. although 

 of the same strength as another one which does, it will be seen that as the 

 laving queen remains in the hive there is no interruption in the rearing of 

 bees, and as all the work which is done by swarms during the first three 



