SWARMING 
815 
hive the swarms that issue in such a man¬ 
ner that the crop of surplus honey shall not 
be reduced. (See After-swarming.) A bee¬ 
keeper who operates out-apiaries or one 
who is away from the bees during the day 
finds it necessary to treat the colonies to 
prevent the issuing of swarms at a time 
when he can not be in the apiary. 
Generally speaking, there are two reme¬ 
dial measures which will satisfy the bees 
as to swarming without the swarm’s issuing. 
One of these is the making of an artificial 
swarm (see Artificial Swarms) ; and the 
other is the removal of the queen, destroy¬ 
ing all queen-cells at the time the queen is 
removed and again nine or ten days later, 
then introducing a young laying queen, or, 
in some cases, giving the colony a queen¬ 
cell. In the one case the beekeeper brings 
about a condition similar to that of the 
recently-hived natural swarm, and in the 
other case a condition similar to that of 
the parent colony. 
When the beekeeper expects to be absent 
from the apiary during the day during the 
swarming season he should use every pre¬ 
caution to prevent swarming. Then as the 
swarming season approaches he should ex¬ 
amine the strongest colonies to determine if 
queen-cells are being built in any of them. 
If any are found it now becomes necessary 
either to begin a systematic examination of 
each colony every week or ten days during 
the swarming season to find which colonies 
are preparing to swarm and to treat those 
which need treatment; or, to treat all the 
colonies whether preparing to swarm or 
not. Usually the first method is the one 
used. The uncertainty of weather condi¬ 
tions in many parts of the country during 
the swarming season makes it difficult to 
work out a system that gives good results 
year after year by which all the colonies 
are treated at the same time when produc¬ 
ing comb honey. In extracted-honey pro¬ 
duction, however, such a system can well 
be worked out to suit the conditions of the 
locality and the season. 
If the plan of treating only those colo¬ 
nies which prepared to swarm is carried 
out, it often pays to destroy queen-cells in 
those colonies which are just starting queen- 
cells. Some colonies will give up swarming 
if other conditions are favorable when 
queen-cells are destroyed, provided the cells 
contain only eggs or very §fng,lj larvae. 
HOW TO DISTINGUISH SUPERSEDURE CELLS 
FROM SWARMING CELLS. 
When bees are preparing to supersede 
their queens they usually build only a few 
queen-cells instead of building many as 
they do when preparing to swarm. Some¬ 
times only one or two queen-cells are start¬ 
ed, then later the bees may start other cells, 
so that there may be queen-cells in all 
stages of development from one contain¬ 
ing only an egg to one or more from which 
the young queen is almost ready to emerge. 
On the other hand, when preparing to 
swarm the bees usually start a number of 
queen-cells, sometimes as many as a dozen 
or more at about the same time, so that 
they are all in about the same stage of 
development. 
It is also possible to tell supersedure cells 
from swarming cells by the condition of 
the colony. In the case of supersedure 
cells there are usually indications of the 
queen’s beginning to fail, such as a some¬ 
what scattered condition of the brood, 
while in the case of swarming there is usu¬ 
ally an unusual amount of brood in the 
hive. It must be remembered, however, 
that colonies may start queen-cells under 
the supersedure impulse, and, if during the 
swarming season, the presence of these cells 
apparently causes them to switch over to 
the swarming impulse. 
REMOVING THE BROOD A REMEDY FOR 
SWARMING. 
When a colony is found having well-ad¬ 
vanced queen-cells during the swarming 
season, thus indicating that it will send out 
a swarm within a few days, it is not neces¬ 
sary to wait until the bees get ready to 
swarm, but a swarm can be made artificially 
at once. See Artificial Swarming. 
THE DEMAREE PLAN. 
The usual procedure when producing ex¬ 
tracted honey is simply to find the queen 
and put her, together with a comb contain¬ 
ing a small patch of brood, into an empty 
hive-body, filling out the remainder of the 
hive with either empty combs or frames of 
foundation. This new hive-body is now put 
in place of the old one, a queen-excluder is 
placed on top of it and the supers put in 
place above the excluder. The queen-cells 
are then destroyed in the old brood-eham- 
