THE EXPERIMENT STATION. 157 



Now it is not very uncommon. From our experiments this season, we are 

 led to the belief that by use of chloroform, queens, old or young, virgin or 

 mated, may be almost if not always safely introduced. We could see no 

 harm to the bees from the use of the anassthetic. 



We also tried in a small way this same method to cure the swarming 

 impulse. We destroyed all queens' cells and saw that the bees had plenty 

 of room to work, while they were under the influence of the chloroform. In 

 the few cases tried there was no further preparation for swarming, or 

 attempt to swarm. We shall try both these plans another year very 

 thoroughly, that we may advise positively as to the excellence of the 

 methods. We are prepared now to recommend them tentatively. 



BEHOVING QUEENS DURING THE HARVEST. 



We tried the following experiments in hopes to find whether it were best 

 to remove queens during the season of gathering, that in the lapse of breed- 

 ing, more honey might be secured. The season was a very poor one. We 

 tried to select colonies of about the same strength and vigor. Of two 

 colonies worked for extracted honey, neither of which swarmed, the one 

 with queen gave as during the clover and basswood season season fifty-one 

 (51) lbs. ; the one without queen only twenty-six (26) lbs. This case 

 seemed exceptional. We can offer no explanation or suggestion as to the 

 cause. Six colonies worked for comb honey that made no attempt to swarm 

 — the sections were on the hive at the very dawn of the harvest — gave 

 respectively 31 lbs., 28 lbs., 21 lbs., 25 lbs., 23 lbs., and 24 lbs. This gives 

 a total of 152 lbs., or an average per colony of 25^ lbs. Five colonies run 

 for comb honey, whose queens were removed, made respectively 55 lbs., 35 

 lbs. — these two colonies were in restricted hives, in the lower section of a 

 Heddon hive — 24 lbs., 32 lbs., and 32 lbs. Here the total was 178 lbs ; the 

 average per colony 35f lbs. It would seem that restricting the brood cham- 

 ber in this case was an aid. We should have weighed the hives before and 

 after the experiment to see how much honey was stored in the body of the 

 hive. This, however, we neglected to do. The results are only suggestive. 

 Another year with a better harvest may give more decided results. The 

 actual practice, in this case, would seem to support theory that in a colony 

 with no queen, and so with no maturing brood, but contented, as they were 

 not without means to rear a queen, would produce more honey than a colony 

 with a queen, and where rapid brood-rearing was continually in progress. 



FEEDING BACK. 



At the close of the basswood season, a colony with partially filled sections 

 was given a restricted brood-chamber so that it could not store except in the 

 sections. The queen was removed, and it was fed thirty-seven pounds 

 of good thick extracted honey. The sections increased thirty pounds, so 

 we conclude that thirty pounds were stored. Another colony in one section 

 Heddon hive were given unfinished sections weighing eighty pounds. They 

 were fed twenty pounds of extracted honey, and the sections were filled and 

 sealed and weighed one hundred pounds. It would seem that this colony 

 must have gathered some honey, at the time, from the outside, though a 

 colony on the scales seemed hardly more than to hold its own and the other 



