IU'e-];eei)'in(_i in Victoria. 55 



the right time for putting the sections on, to put the combs containing 

 the most brood, especially the sealed, into the lower body, shaking the 

 bees off the surplus combs in with the others and using the combs to 

 help on weaker stocks. "When a two-story colony has thus been reduced 

 to one set of brood combs and one or two section supers, the bees are 

 forced to enter the sections at once. A few bait sections, that is, un- 

 finished previous season's sections, put amongst the empty ones will 

 be a great inducement for the bees to commence work at once. During 

 hot weather the preventive measures should include enlarging the 

 hive entrances and shading the hives during the hottest part of the 

 day. 



2. Controlling the swarming impulse. Even after everything 

 possible has been done in the way of prevention, there will still be 

 swarms, few or many, according to the strain or race of bees kept and 

 the character of the locality. The swarming impulse may be con- 

 trolled in two ways — by anticipating it, or by allowing natural swarming 

 to take place and reuniting some time after. The principle which 

 underlies all methods for the control of the swarming impulse is an 

 interruption in the hatching of young bees ; this is what takes place 

 in natural swarming. From the time a swarm commences work in 

 the ncAv hive at least 21 days elapse before young bees again 

 emerge, by this time the swarm will have lost many of its former 

 numbers, and is therefore not in a condition to give the best results. 

 When swarming is anticipated, this interruption in the generations 

 of hatching bees is brought about by the removal of the combs con- 

 taining brood and the substitvition of empty drawn combs or frames 

 of foundation. This is usually done when a colonj^ starts raising 

 queen cells. If the colony, although preparing to swarm, is then not 

 yet strong enough, the cell ciips may be destroyed and the brood 

 removed a week or a fortnight later. Under certain conditions of 

 season, colonies deprived of all brood may be inclined to swarm out. 

 This may be prevented by taking away half the brood combs, and 

 when, five or six days later, young brood is foimd in the combs which 

 were substituted for the brood, the remaining combs of adult brood 

 may then be removed. The brood thus removed in anticipatmg 

 swarming, may be given to backward colonies after shaking most of rhe 

 bees off. Before any combs are taken from a hive, the whereabouts 

 of the queen should be ascertained lest she may be injured m the 

 shaking of the bees. Too many combs of brood should not be given 

 to any very weak stocks, or much of it will be wasted on account of 

 the inability of a small colony to take care of it. 



This above method of swarm control involves a considerable amount 

 of work and attention, and most bee-keepers find it more convenient to 

 allow natural swarming to take place and, after a time, to reunite the 

 swarm and the parent stock, thus getting the same force to work in one 

 hive as if the colony had not swarmed at all. When the swarm issues 

 it is hived on the same stand, while the parent stock is placed along- 

 side, but with the entrance facing at right angles from the old position. 

 Nearly all the flying bees which remained when the swarm came out 

 will return to the accustomed place, and thus join the swarm, weaken- 

 ing the parent stock sufficiently to prevent after-swarms. If the bees 

 are of a desirable strain, one of the queen cells in the swarmed stock 



