(Entered as second-class matter at the Post-otfice at Hamilton. 111., under Act of March i. 1879.) 



Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by American Bee Journal, First National Bank Building 



C p. DADANT. Editor, 



DR C. C. MILLER. Associate Editor. 



HAMILTON, ILL., JULY, 1915 



Vol. LV..— Ho. 7 



Editorial 



Comments 



Our Front Cover 



The Illinois State Inspector, A L. 

 Kildow, is busy trying to clean up foul- 

 brood in Illinois, He is shown on our 

 }ront cover, holding a comb from a col- 

 ony badly affected with American foul- 

 brood. See his article elsewhere in 

 this issue. 



Minnesota State Fair 



The Minnesota State Fair is again 

 making the best offers of any State, as 

 far as we know, in the apiary line. The 

 total amount of premiums offered on 

 honey, beeswax, honey vinegar, bees 

 and queens is $1168. 



Cocoons in Oltl Combs 



J. E. Byer.page 194, wonders whether 

 it is strictly a fact that the older the 

 combs the more cocoons they contain. 

 In combs 35 or 40 years old he found 

 the cells as large as in combs only two 

 or three years old. That is as it should 

 be expected, notwithstanding that in 

 some places, especially across the 

 ocean, there are those who advocate 

 renewing combs every three or four 

 years, arguing that otherwise the cells 

 would be too small for full-sized bees. 

 Evidently, however, Mr. Byer has in 

 mind the question, " How can it be 

 possible for the cells to continue the 

 same size if cocoons are constantly 

 accumulated in them ?" 



Two things will help to an answer. 

 One is that cocoons are exceedingly 

 thin. Another is that the bees are con- 

 stantly drawing out the walls of the cells, 



making the cells just as much deeper 

 as required by the filling up of cocoons 

 at the bottom. If Mr. Byer will cut 

 through that comb that is 35 years old, 

 he will find the septum probably an 

 eighth of an inch thick. Even if it 

 should be that the bees clean out part 

 of the cocoon at the sides of the cell, 

 that constantly thickening of the sep- 

 tum proves that it is strictly a fact that 

 "the older the combs of the brood- 

 chamber the more cocoons they con- 

 tain." 



Credit to Whom Credit is Due 



In our February number, we pub- 

 lished extracts of a letter from our old 

 Swiss friend, Mr. Ed Bertrand. These 

 were reproduced by one of our con- 

 temporaries at the antipodes (New 

 Zealand), in their May number, as if 

 the letter had been received by their 

 editor from Switzerland. We are 

 always glad to see quotations from the 

 American Bee Journal in other publi- 

 cations, because it shows that the mat- 

 ters mentioned are interesting, but we 

 believe credit should be given. This 

 was perhaps an oversight. 



Prevention of Swarming: 



How to prevent swarming in the 

 most satisfactory manner is an un- 

 solved problem. Yet it is a problem that 

 sooner or later interests every begin- 

 ner, and for the sake of beginners it 

 may be well to say something about it. 



The size of the hive has something 

 to do with it. A small hive, bringing 

 on a crowded condition in the brood- 



chamber is likely to urge toward 

 swarming. Th- Dadants, with their 

 hives of 10 frames 11 Js by \8yi inches, 

 have only about 5 percent of their colo- 

 nies swarm. 



Heat helps toward swarming, so it is 

 desirable to have hives in the shade. 

 Yet more important than shade is ven- 

 tilation. A colony standing in the full 

 glare of the sun, with free circulation 

 of air, is better off than a hive in a 

 shady place where there is little circu- 

 lation of air. I once had a colony 

 standing in shade so dense that the 

 sun never shone on the hive all day 

 long, and one day the combs melted 

 down and the honey ran in a stream 

 upon the ground. There was such a 

 close growth on all sides that there 

 was little chance for circulation of air. 

 Even with a good circulation of air 

 all about a hive, the hive itself may be 

 so close that the bees will be uncom- 

 fortably warm. So a large entrance is 

 desirable, even as much as 2 inches 

 deep by the width of the hive. With 

 so much as 2 inches between bottom- 

 bars and floor some device, as a bot- 

 tom-rack, must be used in summer to 

 keep the bees from building down. 

 Some claim almost entire freedom 

 from swarming by raising the hive an 

 inch, with blocks under the four cor- 

 ners. 



Additional chance for ventilation 

 may be afforded by shoving the super 

 forward or backward, leaving a space 

 of '4 inch at one end. There may also 

 be ventilation between supers, where 

 more than one are on, and also under 

 the cover. 



There is a difference in bees as to 

 their tendency to swarm, so some 

 make a practice of breeding from colo- 

 nies least given to swarming, with the 

 belief that there may be some approxi- 

 mation toward a non-swarming strain, 



