THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



113 



one great mass, as in an upper stor_v 

 of full-size combs, instead of being^ 

 divided up into numerous small clus- 

 ters as they are with most of comb 

 honey supers. They tell me that the 

 cool nights drive the bees down out of 

 the comb honey supers in single-wall 

 hives; that chaft' hives are really needed 

 in the successful production of comb 

 honej' in the northern part of the lower 

 peninsula; I have travelled about con- 

 siderably in this region, and have 

 found, almost without exception, that 

 it is extracted honey that is produced. 

 The universal practice of any region is 

 usually (but not alzvays) the best prac- 

 tice for that region. There is some 

 good reason zv/iy such plans should be 

 followed. 



To be able to run a colony for comb 

 honey, keep all of the bees together, 

 with no desite to swarm, is something 

 the secret of which we have not learned. 

 We can so manage as \o prevent swavDi- 

 ing, but that does not answer the pur- 

 pose. We must not have any sulking'. 

 What we must prevent is the desire to 

 sivarni. While I do not expect to pro- 

 duce comb honey in the apiaries in the 

 northern part of the State, I am not 

 without experience in comb honey pro- 

 duction. I never 3'et had all of my col- 

 onies swarm. As a rule, at least one- 

 third of them have not swarmed. One 

 year, not over half of them swarmed. 

 All were treated alike. Just why some 

 of them swarm, and why some of them 

 don't, is to me, an unsolved problem. 

 If I knew what it was, i presume I 

 could so manage an apiary that none of 

 the colonies would swarm. Mr. 

 Aspiuwall's non-swarming hive comes 

 as near an answer to Mrs. PYey's 

 question in that line as anything that 

 I know of. I have known Mr. Aspin- 

 wall's success with this hive, for a 

 dozen years, or more, but there were 

 drawbacks that have only lately been 

 overcome. With this hive it is possible 

 to do the very thing that Mrs. Frej' 

 asks us to do. 



I see that Mrs. Frey has trouble 

 with her shook-swarms coming out 

 again in two or three days. I doubt if 

 the raspberry honey flow, or the sea.son, 

 in her locality, has any bearing- on 

 her failures. It is easier to say what 

 it is not, than to say what it is, but I 

 know that others have made a great 

 success of the plan, and I feel sure 

 that Mrs. Frey could if she knew just 

 exactly how to manage. Someone who 

 has tried it says that the bees must be 

 disturbed and led to fill themselves with 

 honey before being shaken off. This 

 seems like a simple or unimportant 

 point, but the one who g^ave this saj's 

 it is all important. There may be 

 some such point as this that Mrs. Frey 

 has overlooked. I think I will give 

 shook-swarming- a trial next summer, 

 in the raspberry region, just to see 

 how it succeeds with me, if for nothing 

 else. 



Then there is the matter of re-queen- 

 ing. I must confess my lack of ex- 

 perience along that line. It is true, 

 that, as a queen breeder, I have taken 

 out many tested queens, and replaced 

 them with young laying queens, but 

 this is not exactly the plan that is 

 asked about. What is wanted is some 

 plan b3' means of which an apiary, 

 worked for honey, can be requeened in 

 a practical manner each 3'ear. The 

 article by Mr. Olmstead is an answer 

 in that direction. Just how practical 

 that plan will prove when worked on a 

 large scale I don't know. 



Let's go back a little and ask if re- 

 queening is advisable / I a,m willing 

 to admit that a j'oung, vigorous queen 

 in the spring is an advantage, but I 

 question if it does not come under the 

 head of things thSit pay, but not so well 

 as other things costing no more time 

 and money. I honestlj' believe that we 

 can leave the matter of supersedure to 

 the bees. We may not then get quite 

 so manj' bees to the comb, but we can 

 take care of tnore combs. 



If the combs below the supers are 



