KiO 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



0«r Q[IE^I0N-B0^, 



With Replies from our best Authorities on Bees. 



an 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 127.— How can prime swarmirujbepre- 



n nli'il : 



1 know of no perfect preventive. 



Mrs. L. Harrison. 

 1 don't know of any positive cure. 



Paul L. Viallon. 

 1 don't know. I wish I did. Young queens or 

 none at all, with shade and plenty of room, are pow- 

 erful aids. A.B.Mason. 



By giving - the workers the necessary room to de- 

 posit honey when Mowers yield, and to the queen 

 the necessary combs to deposit eggs. C. F. Muth. 



1. By extracting; 2. By keeping the colony weak 

 by removing brood; 3 By giving plenty of room 

 for storing and breeding. Not always sure. 



A. J. Cook. 



I do not know of any practical satisfactory way. 

 Keeping a colony weakened down, or enlarging the 

 hive excessively, will almost entirely prevent it. 



R. Wilkin. 



By taking out the queen with one or two brood- 

 combs and attendant bees. Eight days after, break 

 out all the queen-cells. A week or so after, the 

 queen may be returned. P. H. Elwood. 



Cage the queen and remove all the queen-cells 

 once in 10 days. Don't keep the queen caged over 

 30 days, as the colony will begin to run down as 

 soon as the brood is all hatched out. E. France. 



By using large hives, supplied with surplus boxes 

 as soon as the crop begins, and provided with 

 combs, you can prevent all swarming, save when 

 bees replace their queens during honey crops. 



Dadant & Son. 



Prime swarming can not be entirely prevented by 

 any practical means that I know of; but it may be 

 greatly lessened by a free use of the extractor, in 

 connection with large roomy hives. During the 

 last few seasons I was in Jowa, less than 3 per cent 

 of my colonies cast swarms. O. O. Poppleton. 



Usually by giving the hive proper shade and ven- 

 tilation, furnishing abundant room for the bees to 

 store honey, and removing all queen-cells. Young 

 queens are less inclined to swarm than old ones. 

 Some cage the queen during the swarming season, 

 and keep all queen-cells removed. L. C. Root. 



By the interference of man to such an extent 

 l hat it throws the colony out of its normal condi- 

 tion. This ean be done in many ways; but accord- 

 ing to my opinion, none of these ways are conduc- 

 ive to the highest success of either the bees or 

 their keeper, where comb honey is the object 

 sought (J. M. Dooi.ittle. 



By giving suoh an abundance of empty combs 

 that neither queen nor bees are ever crowded for 

 room to store honey or lay eggs Close extracting, 

 even without so much room, will usually, though 

 not always, prevent swarming. In general, swarm- 

 ing is discouraged by large hives and an abundance 

 Of ventilation and shade, JAMES A. Ohkkn 



It has cost me many a dollar to prosecute this in- 

 quiry, and several times I have thought I bad the 

 answer just within reach, but first I knew it was off 

 in the dim distance, and I must confess it is there 

 yet. Of course, you know the stereotyped " plenty 

 of room, shade, ventilation," etc., but with any or 

 all of these they may still swarm. C. C. Mili.lkr. 



The man who can answer this question, by giving 

 a plan that is successful in all cases, had better not 

 answer until he has got his patent, as there is a for- 

 tune in it. I don't know any such plan. The ten- 

 dency to swarm can be checked by tiering up be- 

 fore the lower sections are quite ready to seal, and 

 constantly providing ample room, yet not too much. 

 To entirely prevent swarming is about as hard as to 

 keep a family of grown-up boys together in this 

 country. It can't always be done. Geo. (Ikimm. 



There are too many ways to positively prevent 

 swarming, and second swarming, for that matter, 

 to dilate upon them in this department; but to an- 

 swer your question practically, 1 believe there has 

 never been up to this time any practical method 

 devised which it pays to put in operation to prevent 

 bees from swarming in a large, working apiary. 

 In such cases when we have all the increase we de- 

 sire, it is best to use the well-known practical meth- 

 ods to discourage swarming, and at the same time 

 be with the apiary during the swarming hours and 

 save what swarms break over the general rule and 

 swarm. In the large apiary, other work demands 

 our presence any way. For smaller apiaries, two 

 or three long articles might be written upon the 

 subject of how to manage them and not stay and 

 watch swarms at all. Last summer I ran (51) colo- 

 nies in one apiary in that way, and lost but one or 

 two swarms, I believe. James Heddon. 



Now, here is a chance for some one to write a 

 book upon this subject, and not answer all of the 

 questions we could think of either. Several books 

 have already been written, and a long array of ar- 

 ticles to the bee-journals, away back through the 

 past years, and yet the question seems to remain 

 unanswered. I have found but one successful way 

 to prevent swarming. This is my way: At a time 

 when honey is coming in, shake or drum the bees 

 out upon empty frames, on the old stand, and follow 

 the new swarm with the surplus if any is on. When 

 I have treated a whole apiary thus, I can trust 

 them without any one to watch them. If you de- 

 sire no increase, unite them with the parent colony 

 after the season is over. Remove the old queens, 

 and j ou have requeened your whole apiary with 

 young queens, without hardly thinking of it. I sus- 

 pect the complete success of this plan depends 

 something on the kind of hive used. Now, then, 

 if this answer does not give satisfaction, and some 

 one has a more successful way, I should like to 

 hear from him. H. R. Boardman. 



How can young people be prevented from trying 

 to set up a new domicil? The thing is a little past 

 the art ol man. Some strains of bees are much less 

 inclined to swarm than others. Some localities arc- 

 very muoh less provocative of swarming than oth- 

 ers. Running for extracted honey instead of for 

 comh helps quite a bit. So if this man gets his 

 stock from a business apiary where swarming sel- 

 dom occurs, and keeps them in the right kind of a 

 location, and runs for extracted honey, it is not 

 likely that he will be troubled by swarming much,. 



