64 
Beekeeping 
by a queen trap (Fig. 30), the bees may make several at¬ 
tempts to swarm and often finally destroy the old queen, 
sometimes swarming with a virgin raised at this time. 
As soon as the bees leave the entrance there is a striking 
tendency to move upward. Some go upward within the 
hive and if it is opened they pour out at the top and if, as 
sometimes happens, the queen goes up inside instead of out¬ 
side, the swarm soon returns to the hive. In an analysis of 
swarming this upward movement is to be reckoned with. 
In seeking an explanation of the stimulus to leave the hive, 
there are some manipulations which produce similar results 
and which are of value for purposes of comparison. (I) In 
transferring colonies (p. 245) from a box-hive, an empty 
box is sometimes placed over the inverted box-hive, which is 
then pounded. This drumming causes the bees to fill their 
honey stomachs, after which they gradually move upward 
until practically the entire colony is clustered in the upper 
box in the shape of a swarm. (2) In making artificial 
swarms (p. 283) or in the use of the swarm box (p. 422) for 
starting artificial queen cells, the bees gorge themselves and 
later cluster like a swarm. (3) If bees are smoked exces¬ 
sively, they gorge themselves and begin to run (especially 
true of black bees), usually in an upward direction. In these 
three examples the bees are “demoralized”; the colony is 
disorganized. The bees usually do not sting and most of 
them do not attempt to fly so long as they can proceed in the 
desired direction on foot. They can be moved to a new loca¬ 
tion after these operations, in which event practically none of 
them return to the old location. 
The same peculiar manner of leaving the hive may be 
induced by placing bees in a box with a small opening. If a 
substance with a repelling odor is now placed in the box, 
the bees shoot out the opening as in swarming. This manner 
of exit may be merely incidental to rapidity of movement and 
may not be specially characteristic. The fact that move¬ 
ments can be duplicated does not necessarily imply similar 
causes. 
