iSIav, ic 



American Hee Journal 



needed to keep the brood-rearing at its 

 best. That's a good deal of work. 



2. By and by the brood-nest is full, or 

 nearly so. The second story is added, 

 if possible full of already built combs 

 to save to the bees the work and honey 

 necessary to build them. 



3. The honey-flow comes. With it the 

 swarming. At this time some remove 

 the added story, putting all the brood 

 into the lower one. The majority, how- 

 ever, leave it until the end of the honey- 

 flow. 



4. Most of the bee-keepers practice 

 "shook"-swarming. That is, merely di- 

 viding. All the brood is removed to a 

 new stand, and the colony has to rebuild 

 a new brood-nest. Most of the bees are 

 shaken from the combs, so as to leave 

 as many as possible on the old stand. 

 The sijpers are added. 



5. At the end of the flow the second 

 stories are taken off, and the combs must 

 be cared for and put where the moths, 

 mice and mildew will not injure them. 

 The supers are also taken off. 



6. The last operation is to feed, if 

 necessary, and put the bees into winter 

 quarters. 



The Dadant System. 



Xow, let us compare the above with 

 the Dadant management, item by item ; 



1. In the early spring no feeding or 

 fussing of any kind is necessary. The 

 hives are large enough to afford room 

 for both the brood and the honey neces- 

 sarj' to feed it. 



2. For the same reason no second 

 story is needed. That means a saving 

 of its cost, and the time of taking to 

 the apiary and putting on, including the 

 necessary combs. 



3. In working for extracted honey a 

 colony lodged in a Dadant hive will sel- 

 dom swarm, only 2 to 5 out of 100 every 

 year, so that it is not worth while to 

 watch for the swarms, or shake the 

 whole apiary to prevent them. 



4. In working for comb honey the 

 swarming is restricted by having a large 

 brood-nest, but not entirely prevented. 

 The colonies that do not prepare for 

 swarming may be let alone. Those that 

 do can be shaken or divided, or the 

 queens can be caged or removed. The 

 caged queens can be released when the 

 colonies have been without unsealed 

 brood during a week, or even only 4 

 days. Or another queen may be given 

 or the colonies allowed to requeen from 

 their own cells. 



So far as the work is concerned there 

 is but little difference between the two 

 processes. But there is quite a little dif- 

 ference in the surplus obtained. Shak- 

 ing the colony and taking away its brood 

 and combs tneans that it has to rebuild 

 a brood-nest. That rebuilding costs the 

 bees, or rather the apiarist, about 30 

 pounds of honey. At least, that is what 

 the difference in the surplus amounts to 

 in my locality. In a good locality where 

 100 or 200 pounds per colony can be ob- 

 tained, 30 pounds more or less does tiot 

 matter (?), but in mine, these 30 pounds 

 or so often make the whole difference 

 between sotne surplus or none at all. 



5. No second stories are to be re- 

 moved and taken care of. This taking 

 care of is more than may be thought of 

 at first. It is easy enough to put the 

 empty stories on a wagon, haul them all 



and pile them up. But the e.xtra combs 

 may give trouble. Whatever honey is in 

 them must be extracted, and they have 

 to be kept safely against moths, mice 

 and mold. 



6. Feed is necessary. This will be less 

 often with permanent large brood-cham- 

 bers, than in the other systems of man- 

 agement, yet it may have to be done 

 occasionally. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



Requeening Colonies Each 

 Year 



BY C. C. MILLER. 



Mr.. Editor : — I have always practised 

 allowing each colony to attend to its 

 own superseding, unless where I wanted 

 to replace a queen with a better one, 

 and it has always seemed to me that 

 there should be a very considerable gain 

 in prospect to warrant one in taking the 

 matter into his own hands and being to 

 the trouble of rearing or buying new 

 queens to be introduced every alternate 

 year. Then came S. D. Chapman in the 

 Review, saying he renewed his queens 

 not every 2 years but every year, and all 

 the part he took in the case was simply 

 to retnove the old queens. Giving par- 

 ticulars, he said he removed the queens 

 one week before the close of the rasp- 

 berry flow. 



Now I am practically certain that there 

 would be no surer way for me to force 

 every one of my colonies to swarm with 

 virgin queens than to remove the old 

 queens a week before the close of the 

 raspberry flow. It would be an exceed- 

 ingly foolish thing for me to do. Yet 

 Mr. Chapman is no "spring chicken" in 

 the bee-business, and as I had great re- 

 spect for him, and confidence in his 

 word that in his case there was little 

 or no swarming. I wrote for light upon 

 that one point. Here is his answer: 



Dr. C. C. Miller : — In reply to your 

 question in regard to the time of the 

 raspberry bloom, it is usually from the 

 5th to the loth of June, and closes near 

 the middle of July: Of course, the sea- 

 son may be earlier or later than this. 

 Yes, I take the queens away about one 

 week before the close of raspberry; just 

 for the reason that it is more convenient 

 for me to have them hatch at this time. 

 The queens do not hatch till about one 

 week after the harvest, and at a time 

 when no honey is coming in. 



Just as soon as the raspberry closes, 

 I start the extractor, as I need 1200 

 of these combs after they are extracted 

 to make 150 colonies increase. I save 

 keeping on hand 1200 combs. I put 

 away 500 colonies in the fall and start 

 at the beginning of the harvest with 350 

 good, strong colonies by doubling the 

 lighter colonies at the beginning of the 

 harvest. 



You say if you should unqueen one 

 week before the close of the harvest 

 your bees would all swarm. I have no 

 doubt of this. Let us talk this matter 

 over. 



As I understand, you run almost en- 

 tirely for comb honey, while I run ex- 

 clusively for extracted honey. Now it 

 depends entirely upon the management 

 we give our bees previous to and dur- 

 ing the harvest. You see, as soon as 



the colony in the spring becomes strong 

 I put 2 frames of brood in an upper 

 story and place it above, and when they 

 are well started in this I raise it up, 

 placing another story under it. There 

 is the point. After a colony becomes 

 strong I give so much room that it does 

 not look to them as if they could ever 

 catch up. This keeps every colony work- 

 ing vigorous!}'. Of course, towards the 

 latter part of the harvest I let them get 

 closer to me. With this management I 

 can take away 100 queens any time, let- 

 ting the young queens hatch during the 

 honey-flow, and 1 would not expect to 

 exceed one colony to swarm. With us, 

 where the queens hatch one week after 

 the harvest, and not any honey coming 

 in, they will not swarm. 



If I have not given the desired in- 

 formation, come again. I would be glad 

 to have you. S. D. Chapman. 



Mancelona, Mich., April 7. 



That clears the matter nicely. My 

 good friend is in error in understand- 

 ing that I think removing queens a week 

 before the close of the harvest would 

 make all my colonies swarm. If I wrote 

 that, I blundered in expressing myself. 

 What I meant to say was that it would 

 make all my colonies swarm to remove 

 the queens one week before the close of 

 the raspberry flow. As I understand it, 

 the close of raspberry flow is the close 

 of the season with him. With me the 

 honey-flow continues many days after 

 the close of that flow, which ends here 

 much earlier than the middle of July. 



If I should remove queens a week be- 

 .fore the close of the season, I don't 

 know but the plan would work here, 

 even when working for comb honey. 

 The great trouble would be for me to 

 tell in advance when the close of the 

 flow might be expected. Sometimes there 

 will be a let-up the middle of July, and 

 it will look as if the end was about to 

 come, when the flow starts afresh and 

 continues another month. 



There is no question that for those 

 who wish to take superseding into their 

 own hands, Mr. Chapman has given a 

 very excellent plan, and in any case there 

 are some distinct advantages in it for 

 any one who can tell with reasonable 

 certainty a week beforehand when the 

 season will close. I am glad publicly 

 to express my thanks to him. 



Marengo, 111. 



Wax-Moth, Alsike Clover, 

 Bee-Diseases, Etc. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent says lie lias been per- 

 suaded to take the -'\merican Bee Jour- 

 nal, and through reading it he has a 

 bee-fever on. He wishes to start bee- 

 keeping in May, but is not fully able to 

 decide just what he will do, adding, "If 

 you will answer the enclosed questions 

 through the columns of the American 

 Bee Journal it will help me much in de- 

 ciding." 



His first question is this : "Is there 

 danger of losing colonies by moths or 

 other insects?" 



The larva of the wax-moth is about 

 the only real enemy the Iiee has in the 

 insect line in our Northern States. These 



