FeliriKiry, 191. 



American IBae Journal 



cells contain larva', it maybe given two Of 

 tliree such frames. All queen cells with 

 eggs or larva' must be destroyed. To miss 

 tiestroyinj.' even one. may mean that it would 

 he dcvelojH'd .ind a swarm issiu;. In every 





T? 



Director Kk.'^nki in Wii.co.x. 



case alternate foundation or empty combs 

 with brood. 



In removins combs from the broodcham- 

 ber. follow this order: First empty combs 

 and combs of honey until they are out. then 

 sealed brood. If the empties are clean and 

 the honey white, place tliem in the extract- 

 ing supers of the same hive if they will fit), 

 also the brood unless it is needed for mak- 

 ing increase or building up weak colonies. 



When ciueen-cells for swarming are found 

 far advanced, the final remedy is to take 

 .Hway all the combs of brood but the one 

 which has the least brood, and give empty 

 worker-combs or frames of wired founda- 

 tion. 



Of course the object of the experi- 

 ment was to secure a comparison of 

 the results obtained from Lot .\ as 

 compared with those of Lot B. 



To producers of comb honey was 

 sent "Experiment No. 2." In this the 

 following ground is held : " About the 

 only way to avoid having natural 

 swarms is to make artificial ones." So 

 instructions are given for weekly ex- 

 aminations, just as was given to the 

 producers of extracted honey, and then 

 when eggs are found in queen-cells, 

 and indications point to swarming a 

 shaken swarm is to be made. That is, 

 the brood-combs are taken away from 

 the hive, most of the bees having been 

 shaken from them, leaving in the old 

 hive the queen, most of the bees, one 

 worker-comb, and enough frames to 

 fill out the hive, these frames contain- 

 ing half-inch starters of foundation. 

 Of course, using such shallow starters 

 is open to the objection that drone- 

 comb will be built, and concerning this 

 Mr. Pettit says: 



One disadvantage of hivinson starters is 

 the great quantity of drone-comb that will 

 be built in the brood-chamber. This can 

 not very well be avoided. Owing to the un- 

 certainty of the honey season, and the 

 necessity of having sections well filled we 

 must crowd the super work by giving little 

 or no material to build on in the worker- 

 chamber, and the excess of drone-comb is 

 the result. As soon as the while honey is 

 ready to come off. the frames containing 

 most drone-comb must be removed from the 



brood-chambers and worker-combs, or full 

 sheets of foundation, put in their place. 

 Then if the fall honeytlowis not sufficient to 

 fill these up for winter, feeding can be re- 

 sorted to. 



Some one may say : " But this can 

 hardly be called experimenting, for 

 these plans of management are in effect 

 well known to experienced bee-keep- 

 ers." To a certain extent this is true, 

 yet it is probably also true that the 

 great majority of bee-keepers have 

 never tried the plans given, and to 

 them the carrying out of such plans in 

 comparison with their previous plans 

 would be e.xperimenting in a most em- 

 phatic manner. 



In his report of the results of this co- 

 operative experimenting, Mr. Pettit 

 says reports were received from 62 

 bee-keepers, 24 of these reports being 

 quite full. As might be expected, 

 some of the bee-keepers were better 

 satisfied with excellent plans that they 

 *liad previously used. On the whole, 

 however, there was a gain. Summing 

 up the whole of Lot A and of Lot B, it 

 was found that only 18 percent of Lot 

 A cast prime swarms, as against 38 per- 

 cent of Lot 1;. 



As a result of this control of swarming and 

 the extra attention given to the colonies of 

 IvOt A. the average return in honey was 8^ 

 pounds per colony as against 75 3 pounds per 

 colony of Lot B. In addition to this, there 

 was an average number of 7 combs per col- 

 ony built in Lot A. and ^ combs per colony 

 in Lot B. 



The likelihood is that this increase 

 of 10 percent in the amount of honey 

 obtained will stimulate others who are 

 not doing as well as they might, and 

 Mr. Pettit will be watched with interest 

 from this side the line to see what 

 further he may do. 



colonies readily liear u|) with the depriva- 

 tion, brames of foundation I full or starters ?l 

 are given in place of the brood taken away, 

 which will at once be drawn out. and as long 

 as such a colony has that to do, or to care 

 for uncapping brood, it will not give off any 

 swarm." 



The author further asserts that a good 

 point about such nuclei is, that their queens 

 can easily be observed and tested as to their 

 value. He denotes queens by one year cut- 

 ting the right wing, and the next the left 

 one. He further says that the nuclei often 

 need feeding; vi/., with honey and pollen. 

 So much from the pamphlet. 

 In reply to questions I put by mail to the 

 .tuthor. he has answered : 



" It is necessary carefully to remove all 

 and every bee from the frames of brood, be- 

 fore giving same to nuclei, as such might 

 otherwise kill the young queen. As the 

 ■ ripe" frames of brood will give to the nuclei 

 young colonies' thousands of young bees 

 within a few days, a strong colony should 

 soon result. More than one frame of brood 

 should not be given at a time, because the 

 bees can not care for more; the cells of the 

 frame of brood must all be capped, as the 

 young bees of the nuclei can not do this, not 

 as yet ilying out "A ^trarme hcc on ihe/ramr 

 of hroui/ to dc f.'ii'cii HI iff /it kill the queen." 



My idea is that one might follow this 

 method when both swarming is to be pre- 

 vented and increase made, by working an 

 apiary in series of 10 or 12— /./'.. for every 

 unit of such number, dequeen one of the 

 inost vigorous colonies and proceed as 

 stated. It seems to me that the mode of 

 procedure first given is worthy of wide dis- 

 cussion, and. so far as I am concerned. I 

 could not see it too widely commented upon, 

 criticized, supplemented, bettered, or more 

 especially adapted for our country. 



My home is u miles south of the center of 

 the New York and Pennsylvania State line. 

 With the coming season my inclination is to 

 give this a thorough trial. I wish, on behalf 

 of same, to be as well posted as possible. 

 The only question in my mifid now is 

 whether to give the colonies from which 

 frames of capped brood are taken, frames 

 with but starters or full foundation. I no- 

 tice that with " shook swarming" some ad- 

 vocate giving only starters. 

 I have naturally cotnpared the method re- 



Uepre.s.siou of Swariiiiug 



On page 263, of the .-Xraerican Bee 

 Journal, was given a brief review of a 

 pamphlet printed in Germany whose 

 title, translated into English, is " Why 

 Do So Many Apiaries in the Villages 

 Stand Empty ?" A correspondent who 

 has this pamphlet is especially inter- 

 ested in one chapter, and writes as 

 follows : 



Dr. Mii.i^KR; -1 have a German pamphlet 

 entitled. " Warum Stehen auf den Doerfern 

 soviele Bienenhuetten leer ?" 1 understand 

 in every way Cierman as well as English, 

 and think the publication a very good one. 

 A part of same especially of interest to me 

 is underthe heading: ',V " F'^xcessive .Swarm- 

 ing Must Be Prevented." and a way is set 

 forth which includes increase, which, it 

 seems to me. I have not seen suggested else- 

 where in its entirety, and I would be pleased 

 not only to have your opinion of it, but hope 

 to see a further discussion thereof in the 

 .\merican Bee Journal by others as well. 1 

 translate as follows; 



"N'othing is easier than to suppress 

 swarming and bring about increase arti- 

 ficially. It is done as follows; When the 

 colonies are in their highest State of devel- 

 opment Ihe says end of May; I would say for 

 my latitude, end of .\pril ' I. dequeen the 

 best colony as apparent by wealth of honey, 

 number of bees. etc. Make use of the queen 

 elsewhere. The colony will make a lot of 

 queen-cells, every one of which will be well 

 cared for. the same being in its fullest 

 strength or vigor Shortly before the young 

 queens are to slip out. divide the colony into 

 as many nuclei as there are queen-cells and 

 frames of brood. Six to 8 nuclei may be ex- 

 pected; with good weather, the young 

 queens will be mated after 3 days, and soon 

 begin to lay. At this stage frames of brood 

 are to be taken away from other colonies in 

 order to bring about their swarming pro- 

 clivity, and these same frames are given to 

 the nuclei so as to strengthen them. This is 

 of great help to the latter, and the strong 



UlRKI TOK J. E. C'RANK- 



as yet. 



ferred to with "sbook swarming.' 

 though. 1 have not practised either. 



It seems to me now a question whether 

 the German method offers anything superior 

 to "shook swarming." The main point 

 about swarm iirevenlion seems to me. is to 



