American Vae Journal 



January, 1&13. 



Apiarv of E. Vanderwerken. Stamford. Conn. "Of Uncouth Appearance But of Remarkable Efficiency . 

 (Photographed by Edward F. Bigelow, Arcadia: Sound Beach, Conn.) 



the year to unite? That question may 

 be considered from two different stand- 

 points. Viewed from the side of the 

 bees, it may be said that they will unite 

 most kindly when honey is coming in 

 freely, and that for more than one rea- 

 son ; honey is such a plentiful article 

 that they are not suspicious that any 

 one will want to steal it, so they are 

 not in an aggressive attitude; robbing 

 has not been going on, and they are 

 not suspicious of strangers that may 

 enter; they are so busy gathering and 

 storing the precious liquid that they 

 have not time to be on the lookout for 

 intruders. This might be understood 

 to mean that bees should be united 

 only when storing a surplus, which 

 would be a mistake. 



In my locality there is gnerally no 

 surplus stored until the flow from white 

 clover. Yet almost any time before 

 that, when bees are flying daily, they 

 may be united just as well as in the 

 clover harvest; for whether they are 

 working on willows, maples, dande- 

 lions, or fruit bloom, even if they get 

 only enough for their daily needs for 

 brood-rearing, they are getting enough 

 to keep them fully occupied. I suspect 

 it is the older bees that do most of the 

 fighting, and when there is no work 

 a-lield to occupy their minds they are 

 on the lookout for anything unusual 

 and inclined to resent it. The very 

 worst time is probably just at the close 



the harvest, or indeed at any sud- 



den stoppage of the harvest, for then 

 the field-bees, suddenly stopped from 

 their labors, are trying every entrance, 

 crack and crevice, thus stirring up re- 

 sistance to any intruder; and of course 

 any added bees are intruders. 



The question may also be consid- 

 ered, not with regard to the peaceful- 

 ness of the bees in uniting, but with 

 regard to the time most profitable for 

 the bee-keeper. Generally two colonies 

 are united because one or both are too 

 weak to be continued profitably alone, 

 and this uniting may be in the fall or 

 in the spring. There is advantage in 

 uniting in the fall instead of waiting 

 until spring; because the united col- 

 ony will consume less in wintering 

 than the two separate colonies, and 

 also because the united colony is more 

 certain to live through the winter than 

 the two separate. 



Third — " In the spring, when you 

 have all the colonies you want, and the 

 bees will keep swarming in spite of all 

 you can do, wouldn't it be good prac- 

 tice to put two or more of these 

 swarms into one hive ?" Yes, if you 

 refer to prime swarms only. If you 

 refer to after-swarms, then I must say 

 I am skeptical about their issuing " in 

 spite of all you can do." For you can 

 take the plan so often given in these 

 columns, putting the swarm on the 

 old stand with the mother colony close 

 beside it, and moving the old colony 

 to a new stand some eight days later. 



And to the question whether in such a 

 case there would be danger of all the 

 queens being killed, I quote tradition 

 as saying no, although I cannot quote 

 from my own experience. 



Fourth — If a swarm has been hived a 

 week or more, another swarm will not 

 be as likely to unite with it peaceably 

 as when both swarms are hived on the 

 same day. Still, they may unite peace- 

 ably even when a week apart. Neither 

 is the uniting likely to be so successful 

 when one swarm has a laying queen 

 and the other a virgin as when both 

 queens are of the same kind. 



Fifth — I prefer the newspaper plan 

 of uniting two colonies to any other, 

 although it is not unlikely I may be a 

 little partial to my own baby. For 

 uniting swarms of the same kind issu- 

 ing on the same day, of course there is 

 no need of the trouble of the newspa- 

 per plan ; just dump the two swarms 

 into the same hive. 



Marengo, 111. 



Put More Work into Fewer 

 Bees 



BY EDWARD F. BIGELOW. 



This slogan, originated by the late 

 Mr. Hutchinson, of Flint, Mich., is only 

 partly right, and if accepted literally is, 

 in my opinion, wholly erroneous. To 

 keep more bees is the bee-keeper's 



