450 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jttly 15 



BRINGING IN THE ABSCONDING SWARM IN A SECTION OF A 



BEE-TREE. 

 The entrance was closed by means of a handkerchief frozen on with 

 snow. The ends of the log were closed with snow. 



and meaningless, and is certain that the 

 mere act of diimi)ing bees out on the ground 

 is of absohitely no value. He believes it to 

 be an error to say that the act of dislodging 

 the bees from the combs in a pile in front of 

 the hive can bring results ^jf ?• sc, and he can 

 not see why this should bring an old colony 

 into the i)sychological condition any thing 

 near that of a newly hived swarm. He be- 

 lieves the increased activity manifested by 

 a swarm is due to their broodless and not lo 

 their mental condition. As Mr. G.'s i)osi- 

 tion is a purely negative one, unsui)ported 



by any given facts, but 

 based solely on his i)er- 

 sonal tlieory and l)e- 

 lief, I will not answer 

 his theories. But as it 

 is doubtless his honest 

 belief, and i)oss i bl y 

 that of others, I ask 

 that all those who are 

 interested in the mat- 

 ter conduct a series of 

 experiments this sea- 

 son to find out huw 

 much value there may 

 be in shaking in the 

 dilferent inani])ula- 

 tions, keeping in mind 

 that the fundamental 

 claim made for it is 

 that it puts any old 

 colony, i)roperly shak- 

 en, in a psychological 

 condition more or less 

 similar to a newly 

 hived s w a r m. This 

 principle, established 

 or d i s 1) r o V e d, estab- 

 lishes or refutes any claims made for the 

 system. So I would suggest that you com- 

 pare shaken with natural swarms under the 

 following conditions, always being sure that 

 the swarms so compared are identical in 

 size, race of bees, age of queens, and lime 

 of swarming. 



L Hive shaken swarms and natural ones 

 alternately on empty combs. 

 2. Ditto on starters, 

 o. Ditto on one-frame of brood. 

 4. lleturn them to the old location on all 

 the brood. 



THE LOG SPLIT OPEN AND THE COMBS OF BEES REMOVED. 



i 



