SOME OBJECTIONS.
It has been argued by some, and with much reason, that "nature is the best guide, and it is better to let the bees have their own way about swarming—if honey is abundant, and the stock is in condition to spare a swarm, their own instincts will teach them to construct royal cells; if it fails before they are ready, and the royal brood is destroyed, it is because the existence of the swarm would be precarious, and it is best not to issue." I will grant that in many instances it is better. The chance is better for surplus honey; the stock is quite sure to be in condition to winter; and some judgment is required to tell when a stock can spare a swarm.
But yet, we are sometimes anxious to increase our stocks to the utmost that safety will allow, and often have some that can spare a swarm as well as not, but refuse to leave; perhaps commence preparations, and in a few days abandon them. Now it is evident that as long as many continue such preparation, that honey is sufficiently abundant to put the safety of the swarm beyond hazard; some stocks will swarm while these others just as good, (that had abandoned it before) and have not now begun again, to be in time before a partial failure of honey, and some may not have commenced in season.
NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL SWARMS EQUALLY PROSPEROUS.
I can see no difference in artificial or natural swarms of equal size, at the same time. By taking the matter in time into our own hands, with the rules given, we make a sure thing of it, that is, we are sure to get the swarms, when if left to the bees it would be uncertain, and no greater risk afterwards than with natural issues.
THIS MATTER TOO OFTEN DELAYED.
I am aware that this matter will be apt to be put off too long; "wait and see if they don't swarm," will be the motto of too many, and when the season is over, drive them. Perhaps a good swarm has set outside the hive, all through the best of the honey season, and done nothing, while they could have half filled a hive; but this is all lost now, as well as the best chances for getting cells. Let me impress the necessity of doing it in season, when it will pay. If you intend to have a swarm from every stock that can spare one, begin when nature points out the proper time, which is, when the regular ones begin to issue. It must, indeed, be a poor season when there are none.
IS THE AGE OF THE QUEEN IMPORTANT?
There is another object effected in this way, considered by some apiarians as very important. It is the change of the queens in the old stock. A young queen is thought to be "much more prolific than an old one." They even recommend keeping none "over two or three years old," and give directions how they may be renewed. But as I have been unable to discover any difference in relation to the age in this respect, I shall not at present take much time to discuss it. It is well enough, when we can take our choice without trouble, to preserve a young queen. When we consider that there are but few queens but what will deposit three times as many eggs in a season as are matured, it looks as if it would hardly pay to take much trouble to change them. At what time the queen becomes barren from old age, I presume has never yet been fully determined.
A friend of mine has had a stock in a large room eight years, that has never swarmed, and is still prosperous! I think it very probable that this queen will gradually decay, and possibly become barren, some weeks before she dies; if so, this stock will soon die off. A few such cases will probably occur in swarming hives, perhaps one in fifty, but generally such old and feeble queens are lost when they leave with the swarm, especially in windy weather. As long as they are able to go with the swarm, and sometimes when they are not, I have found them sufficiently prolific for all purposes. I would rather risk their fecundity, and hive the swarm, than to allow the bees to return to the parent stock, and wait eight or nine days for a young queen to mature. A great many will remain idle, even if there is room to work in the boxes.