Swarming.— At the beginning of or during what is called the honey-flow, when the colony has reached a high state of prosperity and the combs are being filled with honey, a swarm is liable to come forth between the hours of 9 and 3 o'clocic. Three-fourths of the bees, in cluding the queen, are pretty sure to come out with a rush, filling the air with thousands and thousands of them. The bees hover about in the air for 15 or 20 minutes, when they will in all probability cluster on some bush or tree. They will wait here for two or three hours, or perhaps as many days, at the end of which time they will take wing again and go direct into some hollow tree or cave where they will take up new quarters and start housekeeping anew. The young bees, with one or more young queens, are left to take care of the old hive.
In ordinary practice it is a custom for the bee-keeper to rehive the swarm by taldng the bunch of bees, as soon as it clusters, and putting it into another hive. Or he can, if he chooses, clip the old queen's wings, preventing her flight with the swarrn; and when the bees come forth she will crawl out of the entrance to be cap tured by her owner, and as soon as her subjects return, which they will do to find their royal mother, they are allowed to go into a new hive on the old stand, while the old hive is carried to another location in the Prevention of Swarming.— Since crowded and overheated hives are particularly conducive to swarming, this tendency is largely overcome by giving plenty of ventilation and additional room in the hive. Shade is .also a good pre ventive. Frequent examinations of the hive during the swarming season for the purpose of cutting out queen cells is a help, and re queening with young queens early in the sea son generally prevents swarming. A better method, according to some, is to remove brood about swarming time and thus reduce the ainount of bees in the hive. There are gener ally colonies in the apiary to which frames of brood can be given to advantage. Various non swarming devices have been invented, including a non-swarming hive so constructed that there is no opportumty for the bees to form a dense cluster.
Robbing.— There are certain times during the season when no nectar is secreted by the flowers. It is during such periods as this that the bees will rob each other if they can or help themselves at candy-stands or to the house wife's fruit-preserves during the canning sea son. When sweets can be obtained in consider
able quantity, either from a weak colony unable to defend itself or from man, the bees are apt to become furious and their craze is not unlike that of gold-hunters when gold is discovered in large quantities. There is a rush; and when the sweets are suddenly cut off, the bees are in clined to be cross and to sting. The wise and careful bee-keeper will see to it that the en trances of his weak colonies are properly con tracted so that the sentinels or guards can protect themselves from intrusion from other bees.
may, perhaps, take all the honey away from his bees, or nearly so, as his honey will bring two or three times as much as any cheap syrup costs him. Some times he finds it profitable to talce the honey all away and give them syrup made of granulated sugar. The purpose of this, of course, is to keep them from starving during the time no honey is coming in f rom natural sources or during the winter.
In increasing the apiary it is sometimes best to buy colonies in box hives on account of their smaller cost, and to trans fer them to hives with movable frames. This should be done as soon as possible, for box hive colonies are of small value as producers. The best time to transfer is in the spring, when the amount of honey and the population of the colony are at a minimum. Transferring need not be delayed until spring merely because that season is best for the work. It may be do-rie at any time during the active season, but, when ever possible, during a honey-flow, to prevent robbing.
Muting.— After the honey-flow, and just before winter comes on, there are liable to be many• weak colonies. It is a common practice to put two or more of these together so as to make one strong stocic. The combs from two or three different hives are put into one hive and the bees are confined for several days with wire cloth over the entrance, when they are allowed to fly. Some of them will return to their old stands but the majority of them will remain.
Wintering.— Two methods are in vogue in the colder portions of the United States. One is to put the colonies in double-walled hives, packed under chaff cushions, and contracting the entrances down to shut out as much cold as possible. The other is to put the summer hives into a dry, dark cellar as soon as cold weather comes on, leaving them there till spring.