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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 



dry, when the hives become heated. 



In placing the hives in the car, put a 

 row of hives across, then put two 

 parallel pieces of 1x2, or larger, the 

 width of the car on the hives and make 

 them secure. If the car is not packed 

 full, brace strongly in the middle, as no 

 one has any idea how much jamming 

 the car will get endwise. And to have 

 a carload of bees get to moving and 

 break open is some trouble, I assure 

 you. 



In shipping by rail it is necessary to 

 have an attendant accompanying the 

 car, as bees go as live stock. After 

 arrival at the destination, haul to your 

 location as soon as convenient. Avoid 

 as much hot sun as possible and re- 

 lease the bees at sundown. Sprinkling 

 just before you open the hives will help 

 to quiet them. 



If the hives should happen to be on 

 movable bottoms, it would be a great 

 help, as the bees that have died on the 

 trip will be on the bottom and often 

 clog the entrance. If the journey has 

 been long and the weather hot, you 

 may have trouble about the bees 

 swarming out. 



I tried moving some strong colonies 

 to Utah, a distance of about 800 miles, 

 but the results were not satisfactory. 

 Moving short distances requires no 

 great amount of knowledge, but ship- 

 ping hundreds or thousands of miles 

 calls for skill, and those who have 

 practiced it for years still find some 

 room for improvement. 



Corona, Calif. 



The Prevention of Swarming 



BY THE EDITOR. 



THERE are many methodsin vogue 

 for the prevention of swarming, 

 but they are nearlyall by manip- 

 ulations which require a great deal of 

 time, at the busiest season. The method 

 which we sustain as best and which I 

 propose to describe requires no active 

 manipulations during the honey-gath- 

 ering period, outside of the necessary 

 ones and is what might properly be 

 called a "let alone " method. 



As early as 1870, we found ourselves 

 with a sufficient number of colonies to 

 make swarming undesirable. Besides 

 the objectionable increase, in numbers, 



swarming caused an increase of labor 

 when we were busiest. The method 

 which we then adopted has been in 

 constant use by us since, with addi- 

 tional improvements. We do not claim 

 that swarming can be prevented alto- 

 gether, neither do we claim that it is 

 as easy to avoid it in the production of 

 comb honey as in that of extracted 

 honey. But the success of our manage- 

 ment during the past season is ample 

 evidence that the principles enunciated 

 below are in the right direction. Out 

 of about 525 colonies, spring count, we 

 gathered less than 30 swarms, but har- 

 vested over 200 pounds per colony, 

 while a neighbor of ours, less than two 

 miles from our home apiary, gathered 

 12 swarms from five colonies, owing to 

 his neglect of proper attendance to 

 their needs. The requirements are as 

 follows : 



1. An ample brood-chamber for the 

 needs of a prolific queen. If the queen 

 finds herself confined to a scanty lower 

 story by excluders or otherwise, she 

 will make it known to the bees or they 

 will instinctively notice it themselves 

 and prepare queen-cells. 



We use a very large hive, large brood- 

 chamber and large supers. But it is 

 not my purpose to advise beekeepers 

 to change their system and the dimen- 

 sions of their hives. Even with an 8- 

 frame hive, the prolific queens may be 



accommodated. Doctor C. C. Mille 

 uses a second brood-chamber for pro- 

 lific queens and removes this, at the 

 opening of the crop, leaving in the 

 lower brood-chamber the best brood- 

 combs. In some way, the queen should 

 be accommodated during the heavy 

 breeding season, and especially at the 

 opening of the crop. 



As an outcome of the first proposi- 

 tion, there must be ample room for 

 stores. Some beginners are astonished 

 to see old practitioners like Dr. Miller 

 giving their bees as many as three 

 supers at one time, on a strong colony. 

 But if the queen is very prolific, and 

 has been breeding plentifully as nature 

 dictates, her colony may be able to 

 work in each of two or three supers as 

 strongly as they would work in one. 



2. The use of comb foundation in 

 full sheets in the supers when working 

 for comb honey, or of fully built combs 

 in extracting supers, has also a great 

 deal of influence upon the prevention 

 of swarming. True, full combs are 

 much more efficient in this, but comb 

 foundation aids greatly. There are 

 days when the crop is so heavy that all 

 the available cells are at once filled 

 with nectar. If the bees have to build 

 combs and thus find themselves crowded 

 for room to deposit their loads, swarm- 

 ing may ensue. But with full sheets 

 of foundation in every section, the 



ASHCROFT APIARY OF L. L. ANDREWS 



HAULING BEES— L. L. Andrews 



work of comb building is much simpli- 

 fied and the necessity of producing 

 sufficient wax reduced. Of course, it 

 is understood that the supers have 

 been supplied to the bees before they 

 found themselves crowded for space, 

 for if the swarming impulse is once 

 gained, it is next to impossible to over- 

 come it by any manipulations what- 

 ever. 



3. It will be entirelyuseless to expect 

 the bees to remain contented and fill 

 the supers, if the ventilation of the hive 

 is inadequate to the requirements of 

 the enlarged population. All observers 

 have noticed the great tax imposed 

 upon them by the simultaneous in- 

 crease of heat and discomfort brought 

 about by a summer temperature and a 

 daily addition of some 2000 or 3000 

 hatching bees to the population of 

 powerful colonies. Yet many beekeep- 

 ers do not think of enlarging the 

 means of ventilation. Thousands of 

 colonies are compelled to leave a large 

 part of their population idle, hanging 



