74 
Beekeeping 
Peculiarities of bees in swarming. 
A bee normally returns from the field to its own hive and, 
while it may make mistakes, it “knows” its own location. 
This is accomplished by the exercise of a memory of loca¬ 
tion (p. 179). When the swarm issues, the memory of the 
old location is abandoned (not destroyed), but if the queen 
is lost or removed this memory is again called into action 
and the bees return to the old hive. If the queen goes 
with the swarm, it may be placed in a new hive, even right 
beside the old one if desired, and the bees no longer return 
to the old hive. On the return from future trips to the 
field they go directly to the new home. The memory of 
the old location is no longer called into action and is finally 
lost. This is accomplished also in artificial swarming but 
perhaps not to so marked a degree. 
When a swarm issues and the air is filled with the circling 
bees, it sometimes happens that other colonies which are 
preparing to swarm will send out swarms prematurely and 
the various swarms will mingle in the air and in the cluster. 
Even if this does not happen, drones from various colonies 
join the swarm. These facts indicate that swarming bees 
have an attractive influence toward other bees. This has 
been attributed to the noise made by flying bees, which is 
so well known to beekeepers and which is sometimes called 
the “swarm tone.” Since it is not surely determined that 
bees hear, it may be that this attraction is not one of sound 
but may be one of smell. 
The issuing of premature swarms and of numerous after¬ 
swarms may become so common as to demoralize the apiary 
and swarms may issue several at a time, without queens, 
when no queen cells have been built or when the colony 
has recently swarmed. Several swarms may unite in one 
cluster. The impulse to swarm is known among beekeepers 
as the “swarming fever” and the exaggerated conditions 
just described are often discussed as if this “fever” were 
infectious. Under such conditions, the usual rules for 
swarming laid down by the beekeeper are seemingly dis- 
