66 
A YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
believe, however, that it does make a difference. If honey 
is stored in any part of the brood-chamber, and all the space 
is not needed for brood, the bees seem to get in the way of 
thinking that there is the proper place for storing, and 
possibly through habit continue storing, even after it 
encroaches on the I'oom needed by the queen. This results 
in two evils, viz : The nice, white honey that we want in 
the sections, is stored in brood-combs; and the bees are 
pretty sure to swarm. On the other hand, if only enough 
room is left to barely meet the wants of the queen, that seems 
to be left entirely for her, and the combs are filled with brood 
clear to the outside. On this account I reduce the number 
of brood-combs to four or five when putting on supers. I 
confess that I do not feel entirely sure of my ground, but am, 
as yet, only feeling my way. Neither do I feel sure that I 
have as few swarms as when I kept ten brood-combs in the 
hive. 
It may be that in the future our breeders will give us a 
variety of bees that under fair treatment will never swarm. 
But that time is not yet here. 
MANAGEMENT OE SWARMING COLONIES. 
From my first using movable frames, I think I have kept 
my queens’ wings clipped, so my experience in having 
natural swarms with flying queens has been very limited. 
But my experience in having swarms issue where and when 
I did not want them, has been very large. Only extreme 
modesty and humility prevents my being very proud of so 
large an experience. If I should ever reach that point where 
I shall be equally successful in preventing swarms, I make 
no promise to be either modest or humble. 
So long as success in prevention of swarms has not been 
reached, it remains an important matter to know the best 
thing to do when swarms do issue. Under ordinary circum- 
tances some one must be on hand to watch for swarms. 
With as many as 100 colonies in an apiary, the one who is on 
watch can hardly be allowed to do anything else. The 
