4 BULLETIN 489, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
natural shade when convenient, no attempt is made to locate the 
hives near natural windbreaks or to face them to any particular 
point of the compass. 
SWARMING. 
Uncontrolled swarming always results in a greatly reduced honey 
crop. A colony of bees kept together will store more surplus honey 
than will the same bees divided by swarming into two or more 
colonies, as each swarm must use a large amount of honey in order 
that they may construct combs for the new hive. This honey of 
course is lost to the beekeeper. Further, this division of the colony 
into two, or more, reduces the available force of field bees, since it is 
necessary that a certain number remain constantly in each hive 
properly to carry on the hive work. It is obvious then that when 
the bees are kept working together in one hive less are needed for 
inside hive work and more are available as gatherers. 
With few exceptions, no effort is being made in North Carolina to 
prevent or to control swarming, and great numbers of swarms are 
annually lost to the beekeepers by flying to the woods. Further, 
many after-swarms issue, and this weakens the parent colony so 
that it not only can not produce surplus honey, but often it dies. 
Many of the weak after-swarms also die. In many cases the bee- 
keeper has at the end of the season only the first swarm to show for 
his labor, no honey having been secured and both the old colony and 
the after-swarms having perished. Beekeepers boast of many colo- 
nies which cast three swarms, but with these results. It is obvious 
that under these conditions a good honey crop is impossible. 
WAXMOTH. 
While, as is well known, the larvae of the waxmoth can do no 
damage in a strong, healthy colony of bees properly cared for, this 
enemy is recognized by all North Carolina beekeepers under different 
names, such as "weevil," "fly," or "worm." No adequate estimate 
can be made of the loss through its depredations, but it surety 
amounts to a large sum. Since the climate of North Carolina is not 
so rigorous as that farther north, the waxmoth has opportunities 
to work for a correspondingly longer period of the year. There is 
no climatic reason, however, why the ravages of this insect should 
not be stopped. The loss is due chiefly to excessive swarming, or, 
to be more explicit, to allowing after-swarms to issue. This is fur- 
ther aggravated by the great amount of German (black) blood in 
the bees, since it is generally admitted that black bees do not repel 
the waxmoth as do Italians. 
DISEASE. 
American foulbrood. — Samples of this disease were received by the 
Bureau of Entomology from Guilford County in 1911 and from 
