150 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



profit. In other words, I have made 

 more money since keeping' more bees 

 in this way. But there have been 

 losses which should have been pre- 

 vented. I have learned how to prevent 

 them in a measure, but not to my en- 

 tire satisfaction. What troubles me 

 most, is, the occasional absconding 

 of shaken swarms. It is no wonder 

 that a swarm should feel disgusted 

 after receiving that most unmerciful 

 treatinent from the apiarist, styled 

 "shakin<r, " "shook,'' etc. We our- 

 selves would feel that way: Our 

 house all torn to pieces, the furni- 

 ture gone, the children carried off. 

 What man, under such conditions, 

 would have the courage to start in 

 anew on the same farm ? This is 

 identically what we expect the bees 

 to do. Some bee-keepers say they 

 have no trouble in having their bees 

 conform to the new condition.-, but, 

 somehow, I cannot find out wherein the 

 difl'erence lies between their method 

 and mine. Some of my shaken swarms 

 abscond, or make the attempt, any 

 how. What can I do to prevent it? I 

 can only tell what I do do; to reduce 

 absconding I have two systems, one 

 based upon the principle of g^entleness, 

 the other upon the principle of force. 

 The principle of gentleness prompts 

 me to be as kind as conditions admit; 

 I start each bee off with a load of 

 honey, I leave them a few of their 

 children to take care of, a bit of furni- 

 ture in the shape of a comb, and inake 

 the hive as comfortable for the excited 

 multitude as is possible by giving 

 shade. These measures hold the bees 

 generall3^ In addition I can now 

 apply a measure of force. I can con- 

 fine the colony by an entrance guard 

 in such a way that neither drones nor 

 queen can escape. Should the swarm 

 then attempt to leave, the worker bees 

 will have to return to their queen. It 

 is my individual opinion that an en- 

 trance guard cannot possibly make a 

 hive attractive to the bees. It would 



seem to me, it would have the opposite 

 effect. Clipping the queens' wings is 

 nearly as effective as the entrance 

 guard. I prefer it as a safety measure. 

 If it were not for sometimes-several-col- 

 on ies-coming-out-at-the-same-time, and 

 the abnormal swarming with virgin 

 queens, the clipping of queens would 

 very nearly fill the bill. Who can tell 

 us something better ? 



When operating out-yards, stimula- 

 tive feeding is practically an impossi- 

 bility. The same may be said of other 

 practices, such as spreading of the 

 brood. The busy bee-keeper has no 

 time to spend in this fashion. The 

 bees must be run as much as possible 

 on "the-let-alone-plan." 



MAKK-SHIFT HIVES AND SUPERS. 



It seems to me an odd way, but one 

 of our successful comb-honey producers 

 places a two-inch section (size of hive) 

 upon all of his strong colonies in the 

 spring. He says the most natural 

 place for the bees to cluster is on top 

 of the frames. Should some honey 

 come in earl}', more than is used for 

 breeding, and the bees should fill the 

 two-inch chamber, there will be no 

 harm in that, as the honey is usually 

 inferior, commercially, and may be 

 used in the fall to help out light 

 colonies. 



A similar low chamber above the 

 brood-frames was an essential feature 

 of Dzierzon's famous twin-hive and was 

 known as the Wirr-batt, as such pro- 

 verbial. Its object was to provide 

 every colony with food always acces- 

 sible. Of course there were no frames 

 in this chamber. C. A. Olmstead hit 

 on the same device without having 

 knowledge of the other, and believes it 

 to be a good thing. 



Olmstead has also discarded the 

 movable frame when using hives for 

 shaken swarms. Just a shallow box 

 with tO]i bars nailed in, made queen 

 excluding, answers all his purposes. 

 At the end of the season the "shooks" 

 are united with their mother colonies, 



