September, 1910. 



American Vee Journal 



statement, but I feel pretty strong on 

 the subject. 



I would suggest that if any bee-keeper 

 has a swarm that he knows came out 

 because of heat, that lie pinch off the 

 queen's head and send to O. B. Metcalfe 

 for a queen that will not swarm how- 

 ever hot it gets. I feel pretty sure that 

 enough hot weather will stop swarm- 

 ing to some extent, but I have seen 

 combs melt down from the heat and 

 drive the bees out on the outside of 

 the hive under almost every condition 

 of honey-flow, but I never saw a 

 swarm as a result of it. They hang 

 around until the honey from the melted 

 combs runs out, and then meekly crawl 

 back to begin all over. 



If I may be allowed to get a little bit 

 flowery myself. I should say that my 

 bees are such a brave strain that their 

 last cry is, " Don't give up the ship !" 

 I have never seen a colony of bees ac- 

 quire the swarming impulse in a hive 

 where the queen felt that she had 

 plenty of room to lay; and the bees 

 felt that they had plenty of room to 

 store honey, no matter how hot, cold, 

 or how foul the place they lived in. 



We keep the same entrance through 

 the summer as in the spring. In the 

 spring the wind blows from 40 to 60 

 miles an hour, thus greatly helping 

 ventilation. At this time the weather 

 is quite cold, but the bees swarm with 

 a vengeance, unless given plenty of 

 room. In the summer the wind blows 

 very little, and the weather is very 

 hot, but the bees will stand a great 

 deal more crowding without preparing 

 to swarm under similar conditions of 

 honey-flow. What about it ? 



Actual experiments last year con- 

 vinced me that enough ventilation will 

 retard or even prevent swarming; but 

 my argument is, that it does so because 

 it does not favor the best and most 

 rapid brood-rearing, therefore it may 

 be overdone. 



Give your colonies ventilation enough 

 to evaporate their honey to ripeness, 

 and if you are trying to force them into 

 comb-honey supers take brood enough 

 away from them to prevent swarming, 

 rather than give them ventilation 

 enough to hinder the best brood pro- 

 duction. Brood is what you want. 

 You can use it to good advantage in 

 weak colonies, or for making increase. 

 Some experiments I am now con- 

 ducting in feeding to produce wax, 

 have shown me the value of a large 

 force of young bees in the hive. 



If any one comes up to you and tells 

 you to uncap brood to prevent swarm- 

 ing, hit him — unless he is much larger 

 than you. 

 Mesilla Park, N. Mex. 



Uniting Colonies of Bees 



BY C. M. DOOLITTLE. 



" Say. Mr. Doolittle. won't you tell us some- 

 thing in the American Bee Journal about 

 uniting bees? 1 tried to do this last fall, 

 then again this spring, and I made nearly a 

 failure of the matter." 



Thus writes a correspondent. I do 

 not favor the plan of uniting bees in 

 the spring very much. Not because it 

 can not be done at that time as well as 

 at any other, but because the gain is 

 not as apparent then as it is in either 



early summer or in the fall. However, 

 if any one wishes to diminish his num- 

 ber of colonies in the spring on ac- 

 count of one's capital, stock of hives, 

 etc., being limited, it is sometimes well 

 to do this, though I doubt the profit- 

 ableness of so doing. Where uniting 

 on this account is to be done, I con- 

 sider it better to unite only medium 

 colonies, allowing the weaker and the 

 stronger to remain as they are. If two 

 of the strongest are united, no gain is 

 made; for, as a rule, such strong colo- 

 nies come up to the maxium number 

 of bees a little too soon, thus contract- 

 ing swarming fever before the honey 

 harvest fully arrives, while at the same 

 time many of the bees which should 

 go through the harvest as honey-gath- 

 erers die during the first part, or in the 

 height of the bloom. 



Then where we unite very weak col- 

 onies early in the season, there seems 

 to come on such united colonies an 

 undue agitation, lots of brood being 

 started from this result, which, from 

 the feeding and necessary care, wears 

 out the vitality, the same being not 

 over-abundant in such weak colonies, 

 and the united bees die of old age or 

 worn out vitality before enough of the 

 brood emerges to perpetuate the col- 

 ony, which generally results in the loss 

 of the whole, or of the colony pulling 

 through little if any better than 

 would have been each had they been 

 tucked up as comfortable as possible 

 and left to themselves. I have put as 

 high as 7 such weaklings together the 

 first of May, only to have the whole 

 die, or to have what remained of them 

 four weeks later, not as good as were 

 each of the 7 other similar colonies 

 which were left to themselves. 



The inmates of these weak colonies 

 are generally weak from poor winter- 

 ing, and when they are stirred up to un- 

 usual activity through uniting, they 

 soon " play out " and die, as nearly all 

 know, who have tried to save their 

 weak colonies by uniting them in early 

 spring. 



Shut these very weak colonies on 

 only as many combs as they can fully 

 occupy, which will generally be not 

 more than 2 or 3. one of which should 

 be quite well filled with honey, keeping 

 them thus by means of a dummy or 

 division-board. By having the en- 

 trance on the opposite side of the hive 

 from where the combs are, we keep 

 away the cold air and prevent the little 

 colonies from being robbed out. As 

 they build up add, as they rfequire, 

 other combs till each hive has half the 

 number of combs a hive will contain 

 when full. Keep them thus until the 

 bees begin to crowd out in the vacant 

 side of the hive, or beyond the dummy, 

 when you are ready for uniting. 



Now for the uniting : During the 

 day set a hive where you wish the 

 united colony to stand, or if the 

 stronger one of the two is where the 

 united colony can remain, leave the 

 hive there ; then in the evening set this 

 stronger colony off its stand, and set 

 the hive the united colony is to occupy, 

 in its place. Now bring the other hive 

 and its contents to the same place, 

 when you will open both hives, after 

 having smoked them quite thoroughly, 

 and take first a frame from one, bees 

 and all, and then a frame from the 



other, setting tliem in the new hive 

 alternately till all are in. Now close 

 the hive and shake the few bees which 

 may still remain clinging to the empty 

 hives down in front of the united col- 

 ony into which they will run with fan- 

 ning wings. 



Where this uniting is done in the 

 evening twilight very few bees will take 

 wing, and thus all, or nearly so, will be 

 in the united colony where we wish 

 them. If you wish to save one of the 

 queens, it is best to hunt her up during 

 the day, and use her as you see fit; 

 otherwise one of them will disappear 

 before the next morning. 



This mixing up seems to be the very 

 best way to make the astonished and 

 mystified little things of the feminine 

 gender form the acquaintance of their 

 new home and each other, so that when 

 they come out of the hive the next 

 time at their leisure, most of them will 

 mark their location anew, and thus not 

 get lost by returning to their old loca- 

 tion. But it is always well to remove 

 everything looking "home-like " from 

 the old stand, so that if, in any case, 

 the older bees should go back they will 

 have sufficiently marked their new 

 location, so they will return to it after 

 hovering about the old place for a few 

 minutes. 



In all of my 40 years' manipulation 

 of bees, I have never known bees to 

 fight and kill each other where colonies 

 were united by alternating the frames 

 of bees as above, where smoke was 

 used sufficiently to cause the most of 

 the bees to fill themselves with honey 

 before the uniting was commenced. 

 And this filling with honey has very 

 much to do with their adhering to their 

 new location. 



When uniting in the fall we have a 

 little different state of affairs, for now, 

 as a general rule, each hive is full of 

 combs, which, also, as a rule, are not 

 very fully supplied with honey. Sup- 

 posing that we have 2 weakish colonies 

 with honey enough in the 2 to make 

 plenty of food for one colony. During 

 the day we go to each of these hives 

 and carefully look over the frames. 

 Those having the least honey in them 

 are taken from the bees until only half 

 of the combs remain in each hive. 

 From those taken, the bees are shaken 

 and brushed till they are freed from 

 the bees, doing this in front of the 

 hive the combs were taken from, so 

 that each colony keeps its own bees 

 until the uniting is done. These now 

 beeless combs are stored away for 

 future use. If there is any choice re- 

 garding the queens of these 2 colonies, 

 the inferior one should be killed at this 

 time, otherwise she may kill the good 

 one we wish to preserve. There is 

 something in this worth looking after, 

 as this fall uniting helps very much by 

 way of weeding out inferior queens, 

 and autumn is the best time to do this 

 culling, as a rule. 



When twilight comes, these colonies 

 thus prepared are to be united by alter- 

 nating frames, the same as we did in 

 summer, smoking the bees enough to 

 cause them to fill with honey before 

 opening either hive, when, after unit- 

 ing, you will have a good colony made 

 from the 2 weak ones, with plenty of 

 stores to winter on. If from any rea- 

 son you wish to rid of bees the combs 



