(Bee®«ee®e®®®e®®®««®®®«®®®«®®®®®®e®««<®®®®ee«®e®i 



9 Entered at the PoBt-OfEce at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter. 



PubliisUed M'eekly a,t $1.0U a. Year by <j<eorg:e W. York aSc Co., 331 Ikearborn St. 



QBORQB W. YORK, Editor. 



CHICAGO, ILL, JULY 21, 1904. 



Vol, XLIV— No, 29, 





Editorial Comments 





The National Convention at St. Louis. 



The next meeting- of the National Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation promises to be a very important gathering. Each 

 annual convention is such. But the St. Louis one is to be 

 exceptional. You should be there. It is to be Sept. 27, 28, 

 and 29. Just the best time of all the fall season. Secretary 

 Brodbeck is preparing a great program. Big subjects. 



Better get ready to go. You'll miss it if you are not 

 there. Go, and take your wife or sweetheart. It will be a 

 sweet time all around. 



Preparation for Swarming. 



Years ago it was understood as a rule without excep- 

 tions that a prime swarm would not issue until sufficient 

 time had elapsed from the first starting of queen-cells for 

 one or more of them to be sealed. Since movable combs 

 came into use it has come to be regarded as a rule with 

 many exceptions. Is it really true that there is ever an ex- 

 ception ? To be sure, a swarm often issues-with no sealed 

 cell present, perhaps only eggs in queen-cells, but does that 

 ever occur when the bees are left to themselves ? If queen- 

 cells are destroyed by the bee-keeper, the bees may then 

 swarm with only eggs in queen-cells, or possibly without 

 even as much preparation as that ; but is there ever really 

 a case in which the bees swarm inside of eight days after 

 the first egg is laid in a queen-cell ? 



Destroying Queen-Cells to Prevent Swarming. 



It is the common thing for the beginner, when told that 

 the prime swarm issues when the first queen-cell is sealed, 

 to settle down at once to the pleasing conclusion that if he 

 can only prevent the sealing of queen-cells he has the key 

 to the situation, and all he has to do is to destroy all queen- 

 cells once a week and there will be no swarming. But when 

 the bees are thus thwarted, he finds to his sorrow that iu 

 too many cases they are only made the more determined, 

 and he may find a swarm issuing the very day after he has 

 destroyed all queen-cells. From this some have concluded 

 that the destroying of cells has no bearing whatever upon 

 swarming. That is too sweeping a conclusion. In a good 

 many cases swarming will be delayed if queen-cells are 

 emptied, especially if containing only eggs, and sometimes 

 the bees will give up swarming for the season. But de- 

 struction of cells is generally not to be depended upon as a 

 means for prevention of swarming. 



Grading and Casing Comb Money. 



Many a bee-keeper, who otherwise manages well to 

 secure a good crop of honey, when it comes to grading and 

 casing it for market makes a bad mess of it. 



Some are so careless, and so heedless, as to mix in the 

 same case the very finest white comb honey with amber, 

 partly sealed, or even unsealed. 



Partly sealed and unsealed honey should never be mar- 

 keted, at least not sent to the city market. Such may, per- 

 haps, be sold around home, but it would be better to use it 

 in the bee-keeper's own family. 



Again, we have seen section honey that was simply 

 taken from the hives in the super, and the super and all 

 sent ofif to market ! Isn't that awful ? Such gross care- 

 lessness or ignorance is truly inexcusable. Of course, no 

 reader of modern bee-literature would be guilty of such 

 work. 



In order that comb honey shall bring the best price in 

 the market it should be graded, and then each grade packed 

 separately in nice, new no-drip shipping-cases. 



Slipshod work pays no better in bee-keeping than any- 

 where else. 



Exceptions in Swarming. 



A correspondent who reports an after-swarm as issuing 

 earlier than he expected, writes : 



" On page 435 it tells how to prevent after-swarms, but 

 as I have had several come out within two or three days 

 after a prime swarm as mentioned above, would it not be a 

 good idea to add the words, du/ if a swarm conies out and 

 returns, reckon one week from that day. You see, we 

 "greenhorns" take the experts at just what they say. 

 Picture me with Dr. Miller's, Prof. Cook's, and the "ABC 

 of Bee Culture " books trying to figure out why that after- 

 swarm came out ahead of time I" 



It would be a nice thing if one could always give in- 

 structions that are complete, and rules that are without ex- 

 ceptions. But if one should always give all the variations 

 that can be studied up by a freakish colony of bees, and 

 tack on corollaries accordingly to any general rule, one 

 would shrink from offering any rule. The best that can 

 generally be done is to give the rule, and trust that the 

 learner will have studied general principles sufficiently in 

 his text-book to meet the various exceptions that may arise. 



In the case under consideration, if the addition sug- 

 gested were made to the rule, it would by no means fit all 

 cases. 



The rule given on page 435 meets a normal case of 

 swarming, and if the suggested additon were made to the 

 rule, it would by no means meet all cases. If stress of 

 weather should prevent the issuing of a prime swarm at 

 the usual time, that would shorten by a day or more the 

 space of time between the first and second swarm, and a 



