THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
3 
South Australian Beekeepers' 
Club. 
At a Meeting held at the Chamber of 
Manufactures on Thursday, 3rd September, a 
member of the committee read the following 
paper on “ Swarming : ” — “ The swarming of 
bees has been, I suppose, a familiar and note- 
worthy phenomenon to people of all ages and 
of all countries. The tumultuous rush of 
countless bees from a full hire, their circling 
and flight, and then the close clustering on the 
chosen spot, attract the attention and interest 
of all who may be fortunate enough to witness 
them ; and doubtless many a man has com- 
menced apiculture and the study of bee life 
by the unlooked-for capture of a stray swarm. 
I propose to-night to sketch shortly the 
apparent reasons for bees swarming ; the 
extent to which the instinct should be 
encouraged ; the indications of the approach 
of the season ; and lastly, the procedure to 
be adopted in securing and hiving the emi- 
grant bees ; and in inviting your audience 
do not. desire to pose as an authority on the 
matter, but rather as one who, with limited 
personal experience, has read the leading 
works on the subject and ventures to put 
before you its salient points for the better 
information of beginners, and as an oppor- 
tunity of eliciting new facts and new methods 
from masters in bee culture. A healthy, 
full, and prosperous hive tends to swarm 
when spring is well advanced, provided that 
its capacity be not increased by the addition 
of section-boxes or other means. In the 
spring, when honey is coming in freely and 
the temperature is rising almost daily, the 
queen lays in every available empty cell, and 
the number of workers and drones increases 
rapidly, Ultimately there literally remains 
no work for the mature bees to perform, and 
no room to store honey. They must by 
emigrating, secure a new site for their energies. 
They must, to be of any use in the bee world, 
seek a new home. In springtime, then, the 
beekeeper will inspect his hive, lift out and 
examine the combs, and find out its exact 
condition. When drones are seen emerging 
in numbers about midday weekly, search 
should be made for queen cells, which are 
easily known by their large size and acorn- 
like form. Queen cells may, indeed, be 
formed and torn down again on a check in 
the income of honey or a change to cold and 
wet weather j but when they are seen in 
numbers, the weather being fine, and one 
or more sealed over, a swarm may be daily 
expected, for the queen mother does not await 
the appearance of a young queen, but anti- 
cipates the event by leaving with a large 
majority of the adult bees. Shortly before a 
swarm issues it is said that the bees cease 
working to some extent, and hang about the 
entrance, apparently in an aimless way. 
Still, it is certain that they may swarm off 
suddenly w ithout any previous outward demon- 
stration of their intentions. The first swarm 
from a strong hive is the strongest, and con- 
sists of perhaps ten or fifteen thousand bees, 
including the old queen, drones, and both old 
and young worker bees, there being left in 
the hive a preponderance of young workers, 
and combs full of maturing larvee in all 
stages, including perhaps a dozen hatching 
queens. In seven or eight days one of these 
queens will emerge from her cell, and 
another swarm may issue about two days 
after — that is, from nine to ten days after the 
departure of the first swarm. By listening 
closely at a hive about to cast a second 
swarm the young queen may be heard at 
intervals uttering a characteristic piping 
cry. This note announces the probability of 
the second swarm issuing on the ensuing day. 
There may follow at intervals of a few days 
other swarms, even up to four or five, but I 
think the number is generally limited to two 
or three, and certainly if that number be 
exceeded the later swarms will be small and 
the parent hive be weakened to an undesir- 
able extent. The first swarm is usually a 
very strong one, and suitably hived will fre- 
quently go into winter quarters quite as strong 
as the parent hive, after gathering as large a 
surplus and even in very good seasons and local- 
ities swarming again itself late in the season. 
With reference to the extent to which 
the swarming instinct should be encouraged, 
there will perhaps always be a diversity 
of opinion, and it is certain that a 
method which will suit in one locality or be 
desirable one year may be of but doubtful 
advantage under other conditions. Thus the 
owner of a strong hive, especially if his bees 
are true Italians, may desire to increase his 
numbers 'rapidly, and given a good season 
with abundance of indigenous or other 
flowering plants, will not go far wrong in 
allowing his parent hive to swarm without 
hindrance ; but he must not be disappointed 
if his aggregate honey harvest is a moderate 
one for that season. The apiarist, on the 
other hand, who proposes rather to have two 
or three strong hives, producing each of 
them the maximum amount of surplus 
honey, either in boxes or for the extractor, 
will limit his hives to one swarm each, and 
rest well content if at the close of the season 
he has good strong colonies all round and a 
copious store in his honey-house. 
This latter method, that of limiting the issue 
of swarms to the first one only, will, I think, find 
favour with the majority in average localities, 
