72 
Beekeeping 
often cluster without a queen, they are fleet on the wing, 
they may fly directly to the woods without clustering and 
they cannot be accurately foretold, as can a first swarm, 
when the queen cells are of value as a forewarning. 
Activity of swarms. 
It is often maintained that the bees in a swarm work 
with greater vigor than those which have not swarmed. 
While this cannot be accepted without qualification, there 
are certain activities which are more in evidence at this 
time. Wax secretion is apparently carried on more readily 
than under other conditions, and if nectar is available the 
bees may be so manipulated that a large amount of surplus 
honey is obtained. To take advantage of the supposedly 
increased activity of the swarm, the same conditions are 
partially induced artificially in various manipulations. 
The effect of swarming on egg-laying has been mentioned. 
It is probable that the supposed vigor of swarms is due not 
so much to the accomplishment of more work as to the 
diverting of the labor of the colony into lines which are 
more conspicuous to the beekeeper. It wifi be shown 
later that colonies which swarm produce less honey than 
those which make no effort to swarm. 
Swarming conditions induced artificially. 
While so-called artificial swarms are a part of the practical 
manipulations to be discussed in later chapters, it may be 
of interest to record some attempts at producing swarming 
conditions which throw some light on the natural phe¬ 
nomenon. During the summers of 1912 and 1913, the 
author was interested in the taking of motion pictures of 
bee activities. In the first season, Fortune favored the 
project by permitting the use of a natural swarm, which 
was, however, artificially delayed until the camera was ad¬ 
justed. In all cases the clustering was produced artificially. 
In the first case, a swarm issued on a Thursday morning 
and the queen was caught, caged and placed in the second 
