1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



293 



ing, the idea of jnitting these small combs 

 in the boxes and using them for nuclei was 

 at once suggested. When the queen which 

 had been placed in the nucleus hive became 

 fertile and commenced laying, the sections 

 were slipped back into the frame, which 

 frame, with the bees and queen, was put in- 

 to another hive that contained no queen. 

 For several years I raised queens for my own 

 use, and also a few for my friends, making 

 use of these "baby nuclei." This was only 

 a side issue with me, however, as I was not 

 a professional queen-breeder and never have 

 been. 



Last summer I brought these fixtures out 

 from the dust and cobwebs of the sho]) at- 

 tic, and used them again as I did nearly 

 forty years ago. The illustration shows the 

 small nucleus hives and the manner in 

 which the sections were inserted in one of 

 my large frames. The removable side of 

 one of the hives is also removed, showing 

 the sections of comb honey and also others 

 used for brood-rearing. 



Collins, Ohio. 



A SECTION-DAMPENER. 



BY WESLEY FOSTER. 



We have used all sorts of things to dampen 

 our sections, from a dipper to a syringe; but 

 this trough arrangement does the work bet- 

 ter than any thing else we have tried, and 

 much more quickly. The sections are left 

 in the crate, and the perforations in the bot- 

 tom of the trough are made the same dis- 

 tance apart as the grooves in the sections. 



approximately one-sixteenth inch. Warm 

 water is used; and when one row of grooves 

 is wet, the trough is moved over to the next 

 row. The trough would work somewhat 

 better if the sections in the crate were all 

 turned one way, then every groove would be 

 almost certain to be dampened clear to the 

 bottom of the crate. 



Water is used pretty freely, and it is best 

 to dampen the sections several hours before 

 folding them, so the water not absorbed will 



run off, and the sections that get a too gen- 

 erous wetting will have time to dry out a 

 little, 

 lioulder, Colo. 



[This scheme for dampening sections 

 would be all right, but we should think it 

 would not work much further than a single 

 row deep. — Ed.] 



IS A NON-SWARMING RACE A POSSIBILITY? 



Is the Swarming Tendency Due to Habit or Law? 



BY DR. A. F. BONXEY. 



If for no Other reason than that some of 

 my bee-keejiing friends might be hai)py, I 

 hope the dream of a non-swarming strain of 

 bees may become a reality; however, the 

 more I think of it the more doubtful it ap- 

 pears. 



There has been very much written on the 

 subject, I know. I should not be surprised 

 to learn that the ancient Egyptian bee-keep- 

 ers voiced a wish — but, wait! "It is not our 

 knowledge but our ignorance of the past 

 which constitutes the pride of the present." 

 so perhaps that old-time folk knew more 

 about bees than we do. They trained cats 

 to go into the water to catch fish, though 

 now Puss has a fit if she gets her dainty 

 feet wet. 



The first question which comes to my 

 mind when I get to discussing this question 

 is: " What is swarming?" It is not atavism, 

 for that is merely a reversion to ancestral 

 characteristics, a returning to shape, color, 

 or other physical characteristics; nor is it in- 

 stinct, for that is a special innate propensity 

 in any organized being, but more especially 

 in the lower animals, producing effects which 

 appear to be those of reason and knowledge, 

 butW'hich transcend the general intelligence 

 and knowledge of the animal. Intuition is 

 entirely an unconscious mental process, so 

 it is not that. It is not heredity, for that is 

 almost synonymous with atavism, the trans- 

 mission of mental and physical characteris- 

 tics from parents to offspring. I believe this 

 was fully understood by the old philosophers. 

 "I will visit the iniquities of the fathers up- 

 on the children, even to the third and fourth 

 generation of them that hate me." 



Dr. Jones, in advertising his non-swarm- 

 ing discovery, alludes to the "swarming 

 habit of bees." But is it a habit — a usual 

 or customary mode of action, something 

 which may be acquired and afterward laid 

 aside? "Habit," says the dictionary, is "a 

 mode of action established by use so as to 

 be entirely natural." It would really seem 

 that the definition would apply to this char- 

 acteristic of the bees; however, the word 

 does not seem to fit entirely, so I ask again, 

 and in all seriousness, "What is swarming?" 



In time past, many things were believed 

 which we now smile at. That the lion 

 would not touch the true prince was as im- 

 plicitly believed a few generations ago as is 

 any church dogma to-day. The world was 



