Ne eeeeaeaeEYSES 
102 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 
weekly and destroying all queen cells that have been commenced will 
check swarming for a time in many instances, and is a plan which seems 
very thorough and the most plausible of any to beginners. But some- 
times Swarms issue without waiting to form cells; it is also very difficult 
to find all cells without shaking the bees from each comb in succession, 
an operation which, besides consuming much time, is very laborious 
when supers have to be removed, and greatly disturbs the labors of the 
bees. If but one cell is overlooked the colony will still swarm. The 
plan therefore leaves at best much to be desired, and is in general not 
worth the effort it costs and can not be depended on. 
DEQUEENING. 
The removal of a queen at the opening of the swarming season inter- 
feres, of course, with the plans of the bees, and they will then delay 
swarming until they get a young queen. Then if the bee keeper 
destroys all queen cells before the tenth day, swarming will again be 
checked. But to prevent swarming by keeping colonies queenless 
longer than a few days at most is to attain a certain desired result at 
a disproportionate cost, for the bees will not store diligently when first 
made queenless, and the whole yield of honey, especially if the flow is 
extended over some time or other yields come later in the season, is 
likely, or even nearly sure, to be less from such colonies, while the inter- 
ruption to brood rearing may decimate the colony and prove very dis- 
astrous to it. The plan is therefore not to be commended. 
REQUEENING. 
Quite the opposite of this, and more efficacious in the prevention of 
swarming, is the practice of replacing the old queen early in the season 
with a young one of the same season’s raising, produced, perhaps, in the 
South before it is possible to rear queens in the North. Such queens 
are not likely to swarm during the first season, and as they are vigor- 
ous layers the hive will be well populated at alf times and thus ready 
for any harvest. This is important inasmuch as a flow of honey may 
come unexpectedly from some plant ordinarily not counted upon, and 
_also since the conditions essential to the development of the various 
honey-yielding plants differ greatly, their time and succession of honey 
yield will also differ with the season, the same as the quantity may vary. 
Young queens are also safest to head the colonies for the winter. The 
plan is conducive to the highest prosperity of the colonies and is con- 
sistent with the securing of the largest average yield of honey, since 
besides giving them vigorous layers it generally keeps the population 
together in powerful colonies. It is therefore to be commended on all 
accounts as being in line with the most progressive management, with- 
out at the same time interfering with the application of other preventive 
measures. 
