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- 

 tahty 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 excessof 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 



