Swarm Control and Increase 
281 
the existence of a single underlying factor in all the methods 
devised was not shown previous to the discussion of this 
subject by Demuth. This elimination of the emerging bees, 
to be successful in its purpose, must occur just before or 
during the swarming season. 
The various manipulations devised by beekeepers which 
bring about this condition and which have been devised to 
control swarming come under two headings: (1) The pre¬ 
vention or great restriction of egg-laying; (2) the-removal 
of brood. Even if there were one best manipulation, a bee¬ 
keeper would probably still prefer the one to which he has 
become accustomed, but there is so far no one method 
superior to all the others. As conditions vary from season to 
season, or even within the season, it becomes desirable that 
the beekeeper change his manipulations from time to time. 
Restriction of egg-laying. 
The most radical manipulation under this heading is the 
removal of the queen. She may be removed for a period of 
perhaps ten days and then returned (after the destruction 
of all queen cells), or she may simply be caged and left in the 
colony, to be released at the end of the period. Another 
method is to confine the queen to a single comb of brood 
and several empty combs, or to two or three frames filled 
with foundation in a hive-body below the one containing 
most of the brood, in which case the queen cells must be 
destroyed both before and after the period of separation of 
the queen and brood. 1 In any event, all queen cells must 
1 The removal of the queen has been recommended by Elwood, Quinby, 
Hetherington and France. Caging the queen was then advised by Doo¬ 
little and tried by Miller. The next step was to utilize the queen by keep¬ 
ing her in a nucleus (Miller) and a later development consisted in making 
the nucleus practically a part of the main colony. This was done by put¬ 
ting a comb or two of brood, without queen cells, in the lower body and then 
placing the queen and most of the brood on top of the hive, over a cover. 
Most of the bees are left with the queenless portion and because of the 
reduced population in the upper hive, the bees destroy the queen cells. 
In about ten days the body containing the queen and brood is put below 
and the body containing the few combs of brood is removed to be used as 
