1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



411 



0a^ QaEgJFi0js[.B0& 



With Replies from our best Authorities on Bees. 



All queries sent in for this department should be briefly 

 stated, and free from any possible ambiguity. The question 

 or questions should be written upon a separate slip of paper, 

 and marked, "For Our Question-Box." 



Question 124.— Upon what do you Mve a swarm— 

 foundation, empty frames, or what? 



Foundation or combs. Geo. Grimm. 



Usually on foundation. O. O. Poppleton. 



Empty frames, and contract. A. J. Cook. 



Combs, if I have them; if not, foundation. 



C. C. Miller. 



Upon full sheets of foundation in wired frames. 



James A. Green. 



If you make a swarm without brood, foundation 



is better than empty frames. P. H. Elwood. 



I use frames filled with foundation or empty 

 comb, but never empty frames. L. C. Root. 



On frames with wired foundation, always putting 

 one frame of brood and one of honey. 



P. L. VlALLON. 



Sometimes upon foundation, sometimes upon 

 comb, sometimes upon empty frames. 



Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Principally on foundation, except when I am 

 overstocked with brood-combs that need protec- 

 tion; then I use combs. R. Wilkin. 



Upon empty combs, if I have them; and if not, 

 upon foundation; and if I should have none of the 

 latter, then upon empty frames. C. F. Muth. 



Full frames of foundation, to avoid the building' 

 of drone comb, or full frames of worker comb (in 

 preference) when we have them. Dadant & Son. 



Empty combs, if I have a supply; or if not 

 enough, use some foundation; and if no combs, 

 use full sheets of wired foundation, made by my- 

 self on a Given press. A. B. Mason. 



Empty frames, with 2 inches of foundation in 

 each frame; give them one or two frames filled 

 with brood in all stages of development. We hive 

 but very few natural swarms. We make nearly all 

 our increase by divisions. E. France. 



Six Gallup frames filled with comb, as a rule, with 

 sections from the parent colony placed over them. 

 Otherwise I use five frames having foundation 

 starters in them, the sections placed over the 

 swarm as before. G. M. Doolittle. 



Upon empty combs, if I have them; if not, upon 

 full sheets of foundation, every time. It has been 

 many years since I have hived a colony in empty 

 frames or frames with guides, except some for ex- 

 periment. James Heddon. 



Upon good combs, if I have them, if early in the 

 season, and honey is coming in too slowly to secure 

 any surplus; upon empty frames after the bees 

 have commenced storing suplus and building new 

 comb; not any more upon full sheets of foundation 

 at any time. H. R. Boardman. 



I prefer five frames of comb and two empty 

 frames— putting the latter near the center, but not 

 both together. As second choice, I use one frame 

 of comb in the center and six frames with starters 

 of foundation in them. If my bees would make 



foundation as readily as they make comb I would 

 have them make it for sale, instead of buying it for 

 them. For cool weather and a small swarm, I use, 

 of course, a less number of frames than seven. 



E. E. Hasty. 

 I rather expected some of the brethren to 

 recommend hiving bees on empty frames, 

 according to the plan recommended by 

 Hutchinson, in his book on comb honey; 

 but not even Heddon makes a suggestion in 

 that direction. Neither does Doolittle ; but 

 friend Boardman rather hints that way, and 

 Prof. Cook may have it in mind, but his an- 

 swer is too brief for us to be very sure. 



Question 135. — Does Hie swarming impulse come 

 from the queen or workers? 



A. B. Mason. 



O. O. Poppleton. 



Mrs. L. Harrison. 



P. H. Elwood. 



I guess so. 



I don't know. 



From the workers. 



From both, I think. 



It comes from the workers, in my judgment. 



James Heddon. 



Probably from the dissatisfaction experienced by 

 both. Dadant & Son. 



I do not know. Who does? I think, from the 

 workers. James A. Green. 



From the workers, but is instigated by the queen 

 or queens. H. R. Boardman. 



I do not know, but I guess, as in all well-regulat- 

 ed families, there is an agreement. A. J. Cook. 



I think from the workers; and possibly from the 

 fact that there is no one watching them. 



Geo. Grimm. 



First natural swarm, from the workers; second, 

 or after-swarms, with virgin queen, from the 

 queen. P. L. Viallon. 



I guess both, and perhaps the drones too. I nev- 

 er knew any of them to be " backward in coming 

 forward." L. C. Root. 



I think the impulse is simultaneous; just as the 

 bees keep cells prepared for eggs as fast as the 

 queen needs them, each inspires the other. 



R. Wilkin. 



It is hard to tell; but I never knew a swarm to 

 come oft unless there was a queen in the hive. But 

 I have known them to swarm when the queen was 

 caged in the hive. The bees returned to the hive. 



E. France. 



If blossoms yield, and bees are short of room to 

 store honey, then the queen generally becomes also 

 cramped for the want of cells to deposit her eggs. 

 In such case (and they are in the majority) the 

 workers start the swarming impulse, aud the queen 

 is among the last to leave the hive. C. F. Muth. 



From the whole colony, in obedience to the com- 

 mand of the Creator, who said, "Go forth, multiply, 

 and replenish the earth." All hands are interested 

 in this matter when the time of swarming arrives, 

 and work in harmony with nature's laws to accom- 

 plish the object whereunto they were sent. 



G. M. Doolittle. 



I don't know. Workers without a queen will nev- 

 er start the swarming fever, but that does not 

 prove that the queen does. I once had a swarm 

 issue whose queen I had taken an hour or more be- 

 fore, so that the presence of a queen is not neces- 



