and its Economic Management. 



89 



CHAPTER XIV. 

 SIMMINS' NON-SWARMING SYSTEM. 



THIS System of Management was first made public by the 

 issue of my Pamphlet on the subject in February, 1886. 

 In the same work I claim that " No colony in normal condition 

 attempts to swarm unless it has all its brood combs completed ; " 

 and, further : " To reduce the matter to a greater certainty, 

 while admitting that bees may sometimes swarm if such open 

 space and incomplete brood-comhs happen to be situated at the 

 back, or the point farthest from the entrance, the author insists 

 that the open space and unfinished stock combs shall always be at 

 the front, or adjoining the entrance.^'' That is, at the front where 

 long hives are used ; or between (and under) the brood nest and 

 the entrance where hives are tiered one above the other. 



The idea had been long fixed in the minds of bee-keepers that 

 unless the bees were crowded into the supers nothing would 

 induce them to work thei^e. On the contrary, however, I have 

 had them storing freely in several sets of supers, while at the same 

 time they had eleven empty "standard" frames immediately 

 below the brood nest, with free communication between. 



But an important item in the new management consists in 

 supplying every section with fully-worked combs, so that the bees 

 are induced to store above rather than build to any extent either 

 in front or below as the case may be, where frames with ^-inch 

 starters only are placed. 



If through any inattention to the supers, or a sudden influx of 

 honey, the bees have no room above, no time is lost, and they 



