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THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



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Selected Articles 



AND EDITORIAL COMMENTS. 



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PREVENTION OF 5WARMING. 



A Radical Cure for the Swarming Habit 

 of Bees. 



The readers of the Review know that 

 the copying of Dr. Jones' book on swarm- 

 prevention was begun last month. Its 

 principal feature is that of getting all 

 colonies as strong as possible, then as 

 the honey harvest comes on, and the 

 swarming impulse is developed, all of 

 the sealed brood, except two combs, is 

 uncapped with a honey knife. Some of 

 the advantages of this system were given 

 last month, these are added to in this 

 issue, and the author describes in a most 

 graphic manner how, in a manner worthy 

 of Sherlock Holmes, he reasoned out the 

 plan that Mr. Davenport, or, rather C. 

 Monette, refused to divulge. 

 (Copyrightedi 



8th. The treatment will cure the 

 swarming impulse after queen cells are 

 built and capped over, and it will also 

 prevent swarming if applied before the 

 bees have made any preparations to 

 swarm. Therein consists its great 

 superiority over any and all known non- 

 swarming methods. All other systems 

 require to be carried out before the bees 

 think of swarming. All plans hitherto 

 advocated have been preventative and 

 not curative m.easures. All authorities 

 agree that their methods are not remedial 

 methods and all admit that they do not 

 know of any such method. The simple 

 fact that it will cause the bees to destroy 

 the queen cells after they are built and 

 prevent their swarming out stamps it 

 as being as far ahead of other methods 

 as an express train is ahead of an ox 

 team. 



9th If you desire to re-queen ycu 

 have on hand a nice lot of choice queen 



cells raised under the swarming impulse. 

 No occasion to search for a non-swarm- 

 ing race of bees; no necessity for trying 

 to breed out the swarming instinct, for 

 at all times you have swarm control 

 right under your thumb. 



Again, what are some of the disad- 

 vantages of this system? Objections, 

 such as they are, are all of a minus 

 quantity. 1 st. Not adapted to the man 

 who keeps his bees in the "invisible brood 

 chamber hives," better known in common 

 parlance as the straw skep. the box 

 hive, the log gum and the proverbial nail 

 keg. Neither the bees nor the man can 

 see what is going on within the hives. 

 Yet both the bees and the man seem 

 satisfied. That kind of bee keeper seems 

 to keep bees for the exercise and excite- 

 ment he gets out of it chasing swarms, 

 climbing trees and hiving swarms. The 

 heat, sweat and stings make him think 

 that swarming is the chief end of api- 

 culture. Such a trifle as a honey yield 

 is a minor consideration with him. 2nd. 

 Cutting off the heads of so much sealed 

 brood may seem a cruel, useless 

 "slaughter of the innocents." Admitting 

 for the sake of argument, that it is, does 

 man hesitate to sterilize and weed out 

 all inferior animals even though his 

 methods involve pain and even death? 

 All our methods of preparing animal food 

 inflict cruelty and death upon the animal. 

 Again, the brood beheaded, if it had been 

 left undisturbed, would not have hatched 

 out in time to help gather the harvest. 

 The bees would arrive upon the scene at 

 a time to become consumers and not 

 producers. The unsealed brood, together 

 with the newly laid eggs in the empty 

 cells from which the bees have removed 

 the brood, will hatch out in time to assist 

 with the fall flow, if there should be one. 

 and the colonies will go into winter 

 quarters as strong as they would have 

 been if the capped brood had not been 

 destroyed. It seems the only way to 

 knock the swarming impulse out of their 

 head. Taking a few frames of brood 

 away at a time or taking it all away at 

 once and replacing it with empty combs 

 or foundation will not cure the bees" im- 



