BEE MANUAL. 18£ 



habits of the bee and the commencement and duration of the 

 swarming season ; 2, the sources from which the chief honey 

 harvest is to be derived, when they come into blossom, and 

 consequently, when the chief take of honey should commence ; 

 and 3, the race of bees he keeps, and their natural tendency to 

 increase by swarming, which tendency is greater in some races 

 than in others. 



The bearing of these circumstances upon the matter will be 

 apparent when it is borne in mind that in some climates, where 

 the bees are inactive during nearly half the year, and where 

 the honey season is probably very short, the ordinary swarming 

 period may occur just at the commencement of that honey 

 season. If the bees should swarm just at that time, unless 

 recourse be had to the most improved system of management, 

 the swarm or new stock will be taken up in building comb, 

 and the parent stock in rearing a young queen and recruiting 

 its strength, at the very time when all the workers should be 

 employed gathering in the honey harvest, and thus the best 

 part of the season may be lost. On the other hand, in coun- 

 tries where the climate is mild and the queens begin to breed 

 early in the spring, the swarming season may occur a month or 

 more before the beginning of the regular honey harvest ; and 

 in such a case, if a colony casts off an early and strong swarm, 

 then even, if left to nature, the new stock may have ample time 

 to build the necessary comb, and the parent stock to be re- 

 cruited, so that both may be in a position to take full advantage 

 of the honey season, and probably to collect twice as much 

 honey as the original colony could have done if it had not 

 swarmed. It is obvious that the same rules would not apply 

 to both these cases, and there are intermediate phases which 

 would require to be treated according to the peculiarities of 

 each. 



MODES OF ATTAINING THE OBJECT. 



Whatever rate of increase may be desired, and whatever the 

 circumstances of the case may be, there are two modes by 

 either of which the bee-keeper may seek to attain his ends— ■ 

 the one by " natural swarming " (that is, by availing himself 

 of the natural tendency of the bees to cast off swarms, and 

 using the art of modern apiculture to control that tendency as 

 far as possible in the direction he aims at), the other by 



