CONTROLLED INCREASE. 277 
colonies having old queens are far more likely to be 
seized with that disposition to colonise called the 
swarming impulse, than are those headed by young 
mothers. We have, then, in giving, as far as prac- 
ticable, young queens to our colonies, a method of 
reducing swarming in the apiary. 
High temperature and insufficient ventilation pre- 
dispose to swarming. The remedies here are both 
obvious and easy of application — shading on the one 
hand, and providing ample room for exit and entrance 
on the other, being all that is necessary, as the bees, 
by a system of fanners stationed not only at the hive 
mouth, but arranged in the interior, establish currents 
which, however extended their home, ventilate it as 
effectually as the best-managed coal mine can be 
by its up-cast and down-cast shafts. 
The major cause is, however, want of room, for 
bees are not infrequently driven to swarm by their 
hive becoming so filled that their brood-nest is alone 
left to receive the incoming honey. Straw hivists 
have long known that small skeps produce more, and 
earlier — although, of course, smaller — swarms than 
large skeps ; and in frame hives, if store is coming in 
abundantly, swarming may almost always be induced 
by contracting the space the colony is allowed to 
occupy. For, so soon as the combs are filled with 
brood, eggs, pollen, and honey, queen-cells are com- 
menced. It is true that the behaviour of bees, even 
of the same race, is not quite uniform, and that 
occasionally it is impossible to explain their doings. 
Sometimes, e.g.^ they refuse to leave, but unmis- 
takably indicate their need of greater space by 
