190 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
Previous to 1871, 1 had never clipped any 
of my queens' wings, and I was often fearful 
that my new swarms might desert the hives 
that they were placed in. During the spring 
of that year, I read that a frame of unsealed 
brood placed in the hive at the time of 
hiving, was a sure preventive of a swarm’s 
decamping. This was read with enthusiasm, 
as here was a plan by which my fears could 
be entirely removed. Consequently, when 
my first swarm issued, I hastened to get a 
frame of brood in all stages which also con- 
tained some honey to start them in house- 
keeping, as Elisha Gallup, that veteran bee- 
keeper, used to tell us that we should do. 
They were hived about 2 p.m., and I went 
to bed that night feeling that my first swarm 
of the season was well provided for, and 
would be sure to stay. The next morning I 
took a look at them, and went into the field 
some distance from the house to work. 
At about 9 o’clock, the cry, “ Bees are 
swarming,” was heard, and upon reaching 
the bee-yard, the new swarm was seen going 
for parts unknown. My lips were bit, as I 
thought of some appropriate words to say about 
the one who had recommended this plan, still 
I never put those words in print, although 1 
thought the author of this plan of keeping 
swarms from absconding, deserved a good chas- 
tising. 
I then resolved that in the future I would 
keep the wings of all my queens clipped, which 
was done without delay. Since that time I 
have often hived swarms, and given them brood 
by way of experience, and have also given brood 
to swarms made by dividing, and had many of 
them come out, but their queens could not fly, 
and so of course they could not abscond. 
Probably three-fourths of the swarms hived in 
this way have stayed and worked all right, yet 
not one in fifty hived in an empty hive has 
bothered me in attempting to leave, which 
proves that the brood was, on the whole, no 
preventive, but, on the contrary, an incentive 
for the bees to leave the hive. 
But, says one, “ Bees ought not to leave 
unsealed brood, as it is contrary to their nature 
to desert such.” Let us look into this matter a 
little, and see if this claim is correct. When 
all prime or first swarms issue, they leave brood 
in all its stages in the parent hive, from which 
they came, whether contrary to their nature or 
not, and in giving the frame of brood to swarms 
having the old queen with them, we place them 
in exactly the same condition, as far as this 
frame of brood is coucerned, in which they found 
themselves immediately before they swarmed. 
It is evident that the prime swarms issue because 
there is a prospect of more bees hatching than 
are needed to make a fairly prosperous colony, 
which, with the instinct that is implanted 
within them, “ to multiply and replenish the 
earth,” causes them to swarm. By giving them 
brood we plaoe the hive in a similar condition 
to what the one was which they left for the 
purpose of ge ting away from those conditions. 
Is not this plain 1 
Upon examining hives with brood placed in 
them, from which a swarm had tried to decamp, 
I find that they will have two small piec-s of 
comb built, one on each side of the frame of 
brood given, while queen-cells have been built 
upon the frame of brood in which the queen has 
deposited eggs ; thus showing that they consider 
the conditions the same, or nearly so, as they 
were in the parent hive from which they had 
issued the day previous. 
In these cases of desertion, there are nearly 
bees enough left to protect the brood iu the 
frame, which also shows that they swarm under 
nearly the same impulse which was upon them 
when they first left their parental roof. This 
being the case, when is brood ever a preventive 
to swarms absconding ? Swarms having virgin 
queens issue from a plurality of queens iu the 
hive, and not because the hive is becoming over 
populous ; besides, such swarms never leave any 
unsealed brood behind, without the interference 
of man. If, now, they have unsealed brood 
given them, it secures to them the means of 
rearing another queen, and as such swarms are 
always smaller taan prime swarms, and the 
queen will not get to laying in nearly a week, 
this brood is to them a means of safeguard 
against accident when the queen goes out to be 
fertilized. 
For the above reason it is always best to help 
such small colonies along a little whenever they 
are hived, for it not only prevents their leaving, 
and supplies a positive means of getting a queen 
(should the one they have belostbeforeshe gets to 
laying), butthe brood so given helpsthem to get to 
be a self-supporting colony much sooner than they 
otherwise would be : for the few thousand bees 
which will hatch out of this comb thus given, 
are a great help, coming as they do in a time 
when they are the most needed. 
In the above we have the true secret of giving 
brood to swarms when hived, always giving 
such as have virgin queens’ brood, and with- 
holding it from those which have the old or 
laying queen. This lack of discrimination on 
the part of those who have recommended 
the plan, is what has caused much of the trouble 
in the past . — American Bee Journal. 
Borodino, N. Y. 
AMERICAN SEEDS. 
Figwort, Spider Plant, Motherwort, Horsemlnt, 
Catnip, White Sage, Rocky Mountain Bee 
Plant. Assorted packets, 2s. 6d. and 5s. 
BEEKEEPERS SUPPLY CO. 
Franklin- street, Melbourne. 
