806 
SWARMING 
Aspinwall hive dissected, showing brood-frames and slatted dividers. 
to yield nectar until late in the forenoon, 
since the bees did not go to the fields until 
about 11 o’clock. During these hot forenoons 
the great army of field bees remained in the 
hives, crowded into the space below the 
frames and pushing upward among the 
combs, apparently waiting for the signal to 
rush to the fields. But few, if any, field 
bees could be found in the supers during 
the forenoons, but the brood-chamliers, es¬ 
pecially the lower portion, were literally 
jammed with these old workers. Just pre¬ 
vious to the honey flow the field bees had 
been confined to their hives by several 
weeks of almost continuous rain, and when 
the honey flow finally came they staid at 
home during the sultry forenoons waiting 
for the nectar to come. Excessive swarming 
was reported that season wherever this con¬ 
dition existed. 
The author has carefully gone over the 
back volumes of the bee journals for re¬ 
ports of seasons of excessive swarming; and 
in every case, excessive swarming was at¬ 
tended by some factor which caused the 
field bees to stay in the hives during the 
heat of the day, such as rain or the flowers 
yielding only a part of the day. 
While a large proportion of bees too 
young for field work is apparently condu¬ 
cive to swarming, if to these is added the 
great horde of field bees all trying to stay 
within the already crowded brood-chamber, 
the congestion and discomfort are too much 
for even the best-bred bees, which at such 
times often forget their manners and 
swarm most unreasonably. 
ONE FACTOR ALWAYS PRESENT IN SWARMING. 
Fifty years of accumulated experience of 
beekeepers waging a bitter fight against 
swarming indicates that one thing is always 
present in normal swarming, so far as the 
prime swarm is concerned, whether the hive 
is large or small, whether the colony is weak 
or strong, whether the queen is two years 
