THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
and it is certainly more desirable economically 
to keep a moderate number of strong colonies 
producing good surplus than to possess 
numerous small or even weak colonies, many 
of them gathering barely enough for their own 
sustenance, providing no surplus, liable to 
decay in a bad season, subject also to the 
successful onslaught of robbers, and requiring 
too as much expenditure in material and over 
sight as the most prosperous hive. There is 
perhaps no error into which the inexperienced 
beekeeper is more prone to fall than of 
injudiciously increasing the number of his 
colonies without direct reference to their 
individual strength. Better by far for satis- 
factory results, both to the bees and himself, 
is one hive teeming with strong healthy workers 
constantly putting by surplus than a dozen 
weaklings struggling along for a scanty sub- 
sistence. The man with Italians, however, 
occupies just now an exceptional position, and 
it may pay him to have many Italian swarms, 
even though they be weak and little more than 
nuclei. 
To prevent swarming altogether is a diffi- 
cult and sometimes impossible task without 
so checking the work of the hive as to damage 
its prosperity. Do what you may you cannot 
assure yourself that the instinct has been 
more than temporarily suppressed. How- 
ever, swarming may be hindered and delayed 
by frequent extracting, and by keeping an 
empty comb in the centre of the hive. Should 
one swarm have already issued, casts may be 
prevented by removing from the old hive on 
the seventh day thereafter all queen cells but 
one ; or, preferably, all the queen cells, careful 
search being also made for any young and 
recently emerged queens. Should all queen 
cells be removed a laying queen may with 
safety be introduced on the following day 
after smoking, and such an opportunity is a 
capital one for the introduction of an Italian 
queen to a black stock. 
Our first swarm, then, is issuing from 
the crowded hive, and this will generally 
take place on a fine day any time almost 
after sunrise, but preferably when the sun 
is well up; the bees pour out pell-mell, 
apparently in wild disorder, and, rising 
gradually, wheel round, ever circling higher, 
and, forming a more or less compact cloud, 
generally settle without more ado on a 
neighbouring tree or bush, or even on the 
ground. The queen being with them they 
hang in a compact cluster and usually remain 
so for hours, but if not hived will eventually, 
as they may do in the first instance, rise 
high in the air, and go off rapidly to some in- 
accessible spot, perhaps to some hollow tree. 
The first swarm being accompanied by the 
old and heavy queen mother, is not likely to 
take a long flight. To secure this swarm, one 
may make sure it will not depart utterly by 
previously clipping one of the queen’s wings, 
for she will not then quit the immediate 
vicinity of the hive, and may be picked up 
from the ground, caged and used as a decoy 
for the swarm to enter the new hive. But 
otherwise, should the swarm seem indisposed 
: to settle, they may be induced to do so by 
i syringing with water, or, belter, by throwing 
dust in the air, and this latter method has 
the merit of age, for it is recommended by 
I Virgil in the Georgies. The swarm once 
clustered should be secured without delay. 
Your frame hive is ready with narrow strips 
of foundation. You take a small candle-box, 
a chip hatbox, a large tin, or any other 
1 suitable tight vessel — a hatbox is ns handy as 
anything — and placing; it. under the hanging 
swarm, suddenly jerk or sweep the majority 
| of them in at one swoop. A white sheet 
spread on the ground beneath the place of 
clustering has the frame hive standing on it, 
slightly raised from the bottom board should 
the entrance be small. Empty your bees out 
on a cloth near the entrance, and they will 
speedily seek the welcome shelter. Once in, 
remove the hive to its future stand without 
delay, otherwise the bees will continue to 
return in considerable numbers to the place 
of swarming, to their very considerable 
confusion and loss. Next day it is desirable 
to inspect the new hive to ascertain how 
many frames are required by the bees, and 
any superfluous frames being removed, a 
division-board may be placed beside the 
cluster, and should one have a hive from which 
a swarm is not desired, and which is very 
strong in brood, a frame from it may be given 
to the new colony. I will not touch on the 
various procedures used for preventing swarms 
by building up new hives with frames of brood 
taken out of the established colonies, as a 
subsequent evening will be devoted to that 
and kindred methods. If secondary or even 
later swarms are secured— which, from their 
small size, have little chance of becoming 
prosperous —they may be deprived of their 
j queen by capture and allowed to return to 
the parent hive ; or two or more of them may, 
(the supernumerary queens having been 
removed) be confined, after liberal smoking or 
sprinkling w'ith scented honey and water. 
Should these small swarms have been hived, 
and then proved to be undesirably feeble, they 
may be united, care being taken to approxi- 
mate the forces gradually during the preced- 
ing day or two. I have treated my subject pur- 
posely in but a fragmentary manner, andantici- 
pate that members present will contribute 
from their more extensive experience such in- 
formation as they have bearing on the matter.” 
