804 
SWARMING 
localities, especially in the far north, 
swarming is troublesome nearly every sea¬ 
son. No wonder that beekeepers have been 
searching for the thing that throws the 
switch which leads some colonies headlong 
into swarming, while others continue on 
the main track of gathering and storing 
honey. 
INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY. 
In the search for the thing that throws 
the switch, some have looked upon the ten¬ 
dency to swarm as an inherited trait that 
might be bred out; and at one time Ameri¬ 
can beekeepers made a serious effort to 
eliminate swarming by careful selection of 
breeding stock. Some even claimed actual¬ 
ly to have accomplished this, but today it 
is generally agreed that a non-swarming 
strain of bees can not be developed by 
breeding. The swarming tendency has been 
greatly reduced, of course, by the elimina¬ 
tion of stock too much given to swarming 
without sufficient excuse. 
INFLUENCE OF SIZE OF HIVES. 
Lack of sufficient room is generally rec¬ 
ognized as contributing to the tendency to 
swarm. As a rule, colonies in large hives 
swarm less than colonies in small hives. 
Formerly much was said about colonies of 
bees established in attics never swarming, 
because such colonies had the whole attic 
for a hive. But swarms do issue from colo¬ 
nies housed in attics and other large cavi¬ 
ties, and have been known to issue from 
colonies established under the eaves of 
buildings, having the whole out-of-doors 
for a hive. Swarms sometimes issue from 
the largest of hives, even when tiered up 
five or six stories high. Swarms have been 
known to issue from two-story hives having 
20 combs of which only four or five con¬ 
tained brood, the rest of the combs being 
practically empty and not occupied by the 
little colony. 
While large hives and an abundance of 
room in the form of good empty comb 
greatly reduce swarming, they do not pre¬ 
vent it in all localities every season. 
INFLUENCE OF THE HONEY FLOW. 
It has been said that bees swarm because 
of the honey flow, which makes them feel 
sufficiently prosperous to divide the colony 
and build a new home. In the North 
swarming does usually come during the 
early honey flow; but in some localities, es¬ 
pecially in the South, swarming occurs be¬ 
fore the main honey flow, swarms some¬ 
times issuing Avhen the colonies are gather¬ 
ing scarcely enough for a living. In some 
places swarming ceases entirely on the ar¬ 
rival of the honey flow, while in other 
places swarming usually begins at the be¬ 
ginning of the main honey flow. 
While the honey flow often influences 
swarming, it can not be considered the 
cause. 
INFLUENCE OF DRONES. 
The presence of drones and drone brood 
has been considered as the cause of swarm¬ 
ing. Working on this theory Aspinwall 
constructed wooden combs by drilling holes 
into the ends of blocks of wood to form the 
cells in order to have all cells of worker 
size to prevent the rearing of drones. After 
years of research along this line he aban¬ 
doned this theory of the cause of swarming 
and took up another theory to be men¬ 
tioned later, which finally resulted in the 
invention of a non-swarming hive. In this 
hive instead of eliminating the drones he 
provided wide spaces between the combs, 
inserting in these spaces slatted dividers to 
prevent comb-building in these spaces. 
INFLUENCE OF AGE OF QUEEN. 
Old queens have been put forth as the 
cause of swarming. Some said that the old 
cpieen becomes broody in her second year. 
Others said that a queen, after laying so 
many eggs in the spurt of spring brood¬ 
rearing, becomes tired and seeks a rest by 
swarming. 
At one time it was believed by many that 
a queen does not swarm during the first 
season of her life, and several beekeepers in 
the North tried to prevent swarming by re¬ 
queening their colonies in the spring with 
young queens from the South—only to find 
that many colonies so treated swarmed, 
tho, of course, they no doubt had less 
swarming because of the young queens. 
Much of the trouble from swarming in 
colonies having old queens, is no doubt from 
supersedure during the swarming season 
(see Supersedure of Queens) when colo¬ 
nies often apparently depart from the orig¬ 
inal plan of supersedure and swarm be¬ 
cause queen-cells are present. In many re- 
