. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. 'HHPRJL HINTS FOR NOVICES'. The Hiving and Treatment of Natural Swarms and Casts. The term " swarm " is very often used erroneously by bee-keepers. Many times do we hear bee-keepers speak of the swarms of bees they have in the garden in the winter months. The following definition will probably help to abate the use of wrong terms. A " swarm '' or " east "is a cluster of bees and their queen only. A " colony " consists of bees, queen and combs, with food and brood. A " stock " includes the latter
. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. 'HHPRJL HINTS FOR NOVICES'. The Hiving and Treatment of Natural Swarms and Casts. The term " swarm " is very often used erroneously by bee-keepers. Many times do we hear bee-keepers speak of the swarms of bees they have in the garden in the winter months. The following definition will probably help to abate the use of wrong terms. A " swarm '' or " east "is a cluster of bees and their queen only. A " colony " consists of bees, queen and combs, with food and brood. A " stock " includes the latter, together with the home in which the bees are living. Swarming is the result of overcrowding, and is nature's method of increasing the number of stocks. Under normal conditions the queen commences to lay about the last week in January, only a small patch of cells being occupied at first. As the spring approaches, the growth of the brood nest is regulated by the clustering capacity of the bees the more bees, the quicker its growth, as a larger space can be kept warm. About Mav or June the hive becomes overcrowded, and it is then that the bees prepare to relieve the congested condition of the hive by swarm- ing, and with this object in view, from four to a dozen queen cells will be built. The first outward indication of this preparation is a small cluster of bees hanging at the entrance towards evening ; in a few days the cluster will remain all day long, as at the skep (Fig. i). That the same condition will occur in a frame hive if not properly managed is seen in (Fig. 2). At this period very little work is done bevond attention to the brood. When the most advanced princess is due to emerge from the cell in about three days' time, providing the weather is warm and fine, the swarm, consisting of from fifteen to twenty-five thousand old bees and the old queen, issues from the hive, the time chosen being generally between the hours of to and 4 If, when the above stage of
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