May, 1916. 



163 



American Hee Journal 



known as sources of honey. Although 

 Richter's list does not give the species 

 from which their honey is secured, it is 

 probably not./, itni-ursi, which is found 

 in the East, but ./. /^n>if_'riis or . I. /omen 

 tosa, or other species peculiar to the 

 west coast. 



The leaves of the eastern species are 

 much used in medicine. It is said to 

 be an astringent tonic used in diseases 

 of the liver. 



MU.STARD. 



Figure 75 shows the common yellow 

 mustard, h'rassica camf^eslris, which is 

 common all over North America and 

 in Europe. The black mustard, B. A'iffi-a, 

 also has a very wide distribution in 

 Europe and America. There are about 

 50 species, including the closely related 

 cultivated varieties of cabbage, turnips, 

 rutabagas and mustard. All produce 

 some nectar, and in some localities they 

 are an important source of nectar. In 

 parts of California, notably the Lompoc 

 valley, mustard is grown commercially 

 for seed; much honey is stored from 

 this source. The honey is said to be 

 light in color and mild in flavor. Ap- 

 parently there is much variation in the 

 amount of nectar, according to climatic 

 conditions. In any locality where it is 

 sufficiently abundant mustard can be 

 expected to add something to the prod- 

 uct of the apiary. 



GORSE OR FURZE. 



Gorse or furze Ulex europacus (Fig. 

 76) is a spiny evergreen shrub with 

 yellow flowers that is common in Eu- 

 rope where it issaidto be used to some 



Fig. 75.— Common Yellow Mustard 



extent for fuel and fodder. I can find 

 but few references to it in this country. 

 In California it is said to bloom during 

 all seasons, although much more freely 

 in spring. Richter reports it as a very 

 good honey-plant on the hills of Marin 

 county. 



Atlantic, Iowa. 

 Copyritjlil: ioi6, by Frank C. Pellett. 



Swarm Prevention for Comb 

 Honey 



BY GEO. \V. STEPHENS. 



ONE of the greatest problems con- 

 fronting the rnan who would pro- 

 duce comb honey is a system of 

 management that will effectually pre- 

 vent swarming and hold the bees to- 

 gether and keep them at work storing 

 honey without sulking or desiring to 

 swarm ; a plan that requires little labor 

 and that can be used in an outapiary 

 for comb honey without watching for 

 swarms. From the viewpoint of the 

 average beekeeper bees swarm for lack 

 of room for the queen to lay to rear 

 more brood to store more honey to 

 rear more brood to pester and torment 

 their keeper. If a colony of bees is 

 provided with plenty of room, however, 

 and all other conditions are ideal, they 

 have no valid excuse for swarming; 

 and if they do swarm under such ideal 

 conditions it may be attributed to the 

 innate contrariness of bee nature. 



Dr. Phillips, in his book on " Bee- 

 keeping," says : "The lack of adequate 

 space for breeding is a common condi- 

 tion in colonies from which swarms 

 issue." This and a little experience I 

 had two years ago have helped to con- 

 firm my suspicions that a crowded con- 

 dition of the brood-nest is the princi- 

 pal and primary cause of swarming. I 

 was sent for to take a colony of bees 

 from the attic of a farm house. They 

 had been in that attic for four years 

 and had not in all that time cast a 

 swarm. I found them in a corner near 

 the chimney, and their combs filled a 

 space a yard square and hung down 

 from the rafters fully two feet. They 

 certainly had an abundance of room to 

 spread (18x36 feet), and apparently had 

 not thought of swarming. I presume 

 they might have swarmed when their 

 "hive" became crowded if they had 

 not been removed. 



Swarming may be almost entirely 

 prevented by certain timely manipula- 

 tion, and it is up to the beekeeper to 

 adopt a system that will best serve the 

 purpose. Almost any system of man- 

 agement that will hold the colony to- 

 gether during the honey flow will 

 result in an increase of surplus honey, 

 but most of the plans recommended 

 and practiced by many beekeepers 

 demand too much time and labor. For 

 instance, opening hives and cutting 

 out queen-cells once a week, as some 

 do, is no small job, and frequently leads 

 to sulking and does no good because 

 the condition that causes swarming is 

 not changed thereby. Watching for 

 and running after swarms is a great 

 waste of time. Jumping the parent 

 colony from one side of the swarm to 

 the other every few days to catch the 

 flying bees is not only a waste of time 

 but of main strength and awkwardness 

 besides, 



Shaken swarms, like natural swarms, 

 unless the brood is united with the 

 swarm, divide and weaken the working 

 force of the colony so that the swarm 

 does not get the benefit of all the brood 

 as it emerges, and it is thereby deprived 

 of the usual and necessary daily rein- 

 forcement of young bees to take the 

 place of the daily loss of old bees ; con- 

 sequently the swarm constantly dwin- 

 dles for three or four weeks before 

 there are any young bees to keep up 

 its strength. A swarm is not as strong 

 and does not do as good work in the 

 sections three weeks after it issues as 

 during the first week. By that time it 

 has spent its gathering force, the honey 

 flow may be drawing to a close, and 

 there are a lot of unfinished and light- 

 weight sections in the supers with not 

 enough bees to finish them; whereas 

 if the strength of the colony had been 

 maintained and the bees and brood 

 held together the sections would have 

 been well filled and sealed, and com- 

 paratively few, if any, unfinished ones 

 would have been found. 



Now. to hold the bees together and 

 keep them contentedly at work storing 

 honey and have no swarming or sulk- 

 ing it is necesssary that they have 

 adequate breeding space in the proper 

 place and given at the right time. Some 

 try to prevent swarming by adding a 

 super of sections above an excluder, 

 but this will have no eff^ect because the 

 crowded condition of the brood-cham- 

 ber remains the same. 



I have tried out and adopted ivhat 

 was to me a new plan for the produc- 

 tion of comb honey. It may be that 

 somebody has tried and abandoned 

 something similar, but I am not so in- 

 formed. The late Oliver Foster, in an 

 article in one of the bee-papers some 



Fig. 76.— Gorse or Furze 



