150 



SIXTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



goes toward helping cutting down 

 swarming. 



In the matter of ventilation, we are 

 sure that ventilation has much to do 

 : with it. 



You take a coloT^, the whole front 

 is covered with bees; we have as many 

 as five and six supers ; if they hang out 

 in front and are not comfortable 

 they have not enough ventilation; and 

 they are going to swarm. It is a 

 natural tendency; they have got to get 

 relief. 



This matter of spacing between 

 frames — and the matter of ventilation 

 — means a lot to the bees. 



Mr. Wheeler — I want to ask you one 

 t thing: Did those Langstroth hives 

 contain drone comb? 



Mr. Dadant — That was my father's 

 experience before they used foundation 

 to any extent but sometimes there were 

 no more drones in those hives than in 

 proportion to our large hives. 



Mr. Bull — Were those ten frames 

 operated as ten frame hives ? 



Mr. Dadant — As ten frame hives. 



Mr. Anguish — Talking about ventila- 

 tion; You would not leave them until 

 they were hanging out, clustering out 

 there — I do not think your ventilation 

 would stop the swarming. 



Mr. Dadant — No, we aim' to prevent 

 that to begin with. 



A member — Does Mr. Dadant con- 

 sider it necessary to examine all 

 through the season for queen cells to 

 see if swarming is taking place? 



Mr. Dadant — I do not believe we 

 looked at the colony all summer to see 

 if they had queen cells. We would 

 look outside and top of supers; if there 

 was the least sign of bees hanging out 

 we would give them more ventilation. 



Whether they are laying out or not 

 if the colony is strong when they com- 

 mence to gather honey we lift the hive 

 and slip under the boxes — then the 

 next time round we do not bother. 



We have over five hundred colonies 

 and we never look for queen cells. 



Mr. Moe — The Dadants have simply 



extracted honey. Some of us that are 



comb producers use eight frame hives 



only, and we know what this swarm- 



' ing means. 



Every little while the Dadants have 

 some article on swarm prevention. 



I want to call attention to one or 

 two things: 



I am radically wrong or some one 



has misunderstood Dr. Miller: At the 

 beginning of the honey flow he puts 

 the queen below and puts on an ex- 

 cluder. I am familiar with his writ- 

 ing on that point. I know that would 

 be the thing to do. 



If you don't, you will have a lot "of 

 brood and stuff above, and when you 

 come to your extracting work you will 

 get that in your honey. For that rea- 

 son of course you want your queen 

 below. 



I tried to use swarm control. Some 

 of these things seem so radically 

 against nature it is out of the ques- 

 tion to argue them. 



There are various methods by which 

 we can control swarming. 



Some of us have eight frame hives 

 and work for comb honey. 



We have got to crowd the bees more 

 or less in order to get a fine section of 

 honey. 



When I had black bees I could figure 

 more accurately; they will not swarm 

 until the first queen cell is capped; 

 and then at most nine days after that 

 young bees hatch you will get the 

 full benefit of your fun; you want to 

 be prepared! 



Mr. Moe — ^With the Italian bees, the 

 Italians will swarm without any prep- 

 aration for swarming whatever, not 

 even queen cells started, not as much 

 as an egg in the queen cells; don't 

 you see the picnic some of us have 

 working for comb honey that Dadants 

 do not have, working for extracted? 

 When I had black bees I could figure 

 more accurately. 



President Miller — I find the black 

 bees are worse than the Italian. 



Mr. Dadant — That is true about ex- 

 tracted honey; there is no doubt you 

 can control swarming much more 

 readily, but at the same time you can 

 control for comb honey much more 

 than is controlled by bee-keepers if 

 you follow our methods. 



In the first place, I can tell you the 

 size of hive makes a difference; in an 

 eight frame hive the queen has not 

 the room that she has in a ten, if she 

 is tiny good. 



Secondly, you prevent the rearing of 

 drones by using full sheets of comb 

 foundation; that is bound to help. 



Mr. Moe — Oh, I invariably use 

 Dadant foundation. 



Mr. Dadant — There is no doubt that 

 the spacing of one and one-half inch 



