February, iqij. 



American l^ee Journal 



L'ive the bees so much to do. thai, as it were, 

 tlie swarmine impulse is aborted. .\nd in 

 "shook swarmine " this is done by a iff/'/c 

 tion of tlie brood-cliatnlier. 



.Accordini; to the " HiKule Bee-Book." anil 

 I^'on's bee-book, on "sliook swarming." it 

 is best lo let tlie colony to be shaken, have 

 only narrow stripsor starters of foundation. 

 .\nd this, to tny mind, indicates the degree 

 of depletion necessary, in this country, at 

 least, for ttie ijurpose intended. 



Now. it seems to me. that the tjerniaii 

 method does not by far involve as much de- 

 liletion to most of the colonies that are not 

 to swarm. Suppose, as stated, the German 

 I)lan is undertaken in units of to colonies; 

 the one which is to be dequeened and divided 

 up into colonies is. of course, deiilcted. But 

 liow about the other -j ? Suppose there 

 would be 8 queen-cells started; that would 

 afford s nuclei. Now. as each nucleus can 

 take only one frame of brood at a lime, 

 there would be o colonies to supply eacli all 

 but one one frame of capped brood; it 

 would lake probably H days for the same to 

 hatch, and then another frame could be 

 taken from each of the colonies. Bui would 

 not such depletion be loo slow require .or 

 extend over more lime than available) to 

 prevent swarming ? 



Compare the depletion in "shook swarni- 

 ing" — leaving to the bees at once starters of 

 foundation iw/r— with this German method, 

 wherein only one frame of brood is to be 

 taken away. I have lo-frame hives; this 

 would leave each colony with u frames of 

 comb, with honey, brood and bees. 



Does it nol look as if the (ierman method 

 at best, in this country — /. <•.. considered 

 climatically, laliludinally. and generally 

 idiosyncrally— might (irove a failure ? 



I ■^'\i\\ 10 be enabled lo size up llie mailer 

 as thoroutfly as possible. 



L'lster. Pa., Dec. '>. Cii.-\s. liEVNDERS. 



It \s, liardly wise for one to commend 

 or condemn any plan without first 

 committing it to the bees to see how it 

 may pan out. Besides, wiiat may be 

 very good for one bee-keeper may not 

 always be good for another. Yet for 

 the sake of bringing out some general 

 principles, it may be worth while to 

 give a close discussion to this matter. 



The heading of the chapter to which 

 particular attention is called is : " Ex- 

 cessive .Swarming IVIust Be Prevented." 

 If the only object be to prevent vxccx- 

 sive swarming, then a much simpler 

 and easier plan is the common one that 

 has been given so many times in these 

 columns: Set the swarm on the old 

 stand with the old colony close beside 

 it; a week later move the old colony to 

 a new stand. 



Your desire, however, is doubtless to 

 use the plan to prevent swarming alto- 

 gether; and so to learn about any pos- 

 sible danger-points. 



The best colony is to be dequeened 

 when at the highest point of develop- 

 ment. The author thinks that wnuld 

 be about the end of May, and you think 

 it would be the end of April in your 

 latitude. You are in latitude 4",j degrees, 

 the same as the latitude here. If bees 

 were forced to start queen-cells here in 

 April, the queens would generally be 

 worthless. Of course, some seasons 

 are earlier than others, hut April would 

 always be too early, and often the tirst 

 of June would be too early for .^'hw/ 

 queens. At any rate, wait till the bees 

 begin naturally to start queen-cells 

 preparatory to swarming. 



You are ])lanning on one frame of 

 brood for each nucleus, and then to 

 give to the nuclei frames of lirood 

 without any bees. That will be likely 

 lo result in more or less chilled brood, 

 for the nuclei will have few bees, and 

 you will not llnd it easy to have no un- 

 sealed brood in the frames given. It 

 will help matters if the brood be kept 

 lor a week or so over an excluder on a 



strong colony. Even so there may be 

 danger to the sealed brood if there he 

 too few bees to cover it. 



Taking brood from the strong colo- 

 nies is expected to prevent their 

 swarming. This is very unreliable un- 

 less all but one frame of brood be 

 taken. Sometimes taking a single 

 frame will prevent swarming; some- 

 times taking half the brood will not 

 seem to make a particle of difference. 

 So you can place no certain dependence 

 upon it. 



I do not understand how queens in 

 nuclei can be "tested as to their value." 

 To test a queen as to its value is to tind 

 out about its prolilicness as a layer, or 

 the amount of honey stored by its 

 worker progeny. You could not tell 

 much about either of these in a nucleus. 



When you take away a single frame 

 of brood from a strong colony, the 

 case is quite different from a shaken 

 swarm. The latter is much like a nat- 

 ural swarm, and much of the comb 

 built will be worker-comb. When only 

 a single comb is taken, if the frames 

 given them in return be not entirely 

 tilled with foundation, the bees will be 

 almost certain to build a large propor- 

 tion of drone-comb. 



There is a very wide difference be- 



tween the amount of depletion that 

 takes place in shake-swarming, as 

 compared with taking away one frame 

 at a time. Take away all the brood, or 

 all but one, and you have put the col- 

 ony in much the same condition as a 

 natural swarm, no matter whether yon 

 use starters or full sheets of founda- 

 tion. When you take away only one 

 brood the depletion is so little that it 

 will generally have no effect in the 

 way of prevention of swarming. In 

 reply you may say that if one brood be 

 taken away each week for 9 weeks, the 

 total depletion will be just as much as 

 if the whole !1 brood had been taken at 

 one time. That's true, but the result 

 will not be the same. If you should 

 go without fond or drink for 100 days, 

 it would probably end your career as a 

 bee-keeper. Instead of that, suppose 

 you abstain for 200 days the half of 

 each day, say from each evening to li 

 the next morning. The abstinence of 

 half a day each day for 200 days would 

 make a total abstinence of 100 days; 

 but the result would be <|uite different 

 from taking the abstinence all at one 

 dose. Just the same with the swarming. 

 Taking away one brood each week 

 would not prevent swarming one time 

 in -jd. C. C. M. 



Miscellaneous ^ News Items 



Prof. A. J. Cook, of California, so well 

 known to the older bee-keepers every- 

 where, has recently been appointed 

 Horticultural Commissioner for the 

 State of California, by Gov. Johnson. 

 This is indeed a magnificent appoint- 

 ment, and things horticultural in Cali- 

 fornia may soon be expected to go for- 

 ward by leaps and bounds. .And, then, 

 with Prof. Cook's bee-keeping proclivi- 

 ties, we may in the near future see the 

 horticulturists of California holding 

 joint conventions with bee-keepers. 

 When these two allied interests once 

 pull together we may expect to see 

 such an advance in both fruit-growing 

 and honey-production as this world 

 has not yet dreamed of. We hope that 

 the great State of California may be 

 the leader in such united effort. 



We hardly know which ileserves the 

 more congratulation. Prof. Cook upon 

 his appointment, or the State of Cali- 

 fornia upon its good fortune in secur- 

 ing the services of such an experienced, 

 loyal and worthy Horticultural Com- 

 missioner as Prof. Cook. Perhaps it is 

 equal. At any rate, we wish Prof Cook 

 unbounded success in his new position, 

 and California great progress along 

 every line of work which Prof. Cook 



directs. 



^. 



Association of Apiary fnspectors. 



We have received the following which 

 will surely be of interest lo inspectors 

 of apiaries the country over: 



( )n Dec. .10, loii, in Washington, n. C. 

 there was formed a tenu^orary organization 

 (if the Association of .A[iiary Iusi_)eclors of 

 the United .Stales and Canada, with a view- 

 to increasing the efficiency of apiary in- 

 speclion. li> bringabout a greater uniformity 



in the laws, and more active co-operation 

 between the various inspectors. 



A committee on permanent organization 

 was formed to report at a meeting lo be field 

 in Cleveland. Ohio, in December. 1012. in 

 connection \\'ith the meeting of the .Associa- 

 tion of I'^conomic iMilomologisls. Prof. Wil- 

 mon Newell, of College Station, Tex., is 

 chairman of this committee. 



A standing committee was also appointed 

 on Legislatioti. for the purpose of drawing 

 up a law incorporating llie necessary and 

 desirable features. 'I'he undersigned was 

 appointed chairman of this committee. 



.All apiary inspectors and orticial ento- 

 mologists of tlie United Stales and Canada, 

 who are interested in the advancement of 

 apiculture, are invited and urged to join in 

 this movement for an increased efficiency 

 in the light against the brood-diseases. Vat 

 the present it was decided to levy an assess- 

 ment, $1.00 per year, on each member, to pay 

 necessary expenses. It is hoped that ar- 

 rangement may later be perfected for af^lia 

 liou with the Associ.-itiou of Kcouomic Kn- 

 lomologists. Requests for membership and 

 the assessment may be sent to the under- 

 signed, kesiiectfuily. 



!■', F. Pnil.I.ii'S, 

 flurcau of ICntouiology. Washington, I), C 



Dk. Burton N. Gatks. 



-Amhersi, Mass.. Cli,iiriii,iii. 



We hope that every inspector of api- 

 aries in the United States and Canada 

 will unite with the new organization. 

 Its efforts can but result in good to the 

 whole bee-keeping industry. Let every 

 inspector send at once his annual dues 

 of $l.nil to Secretary Phillips, and get 

 in line for more advanced and efficient 

 apiary inspection. 



Growing Sweet Clover. — We have no 



dciiibt that it more bee-keepers knew 

 how to grow sweet clover they would 

 be sowing acres and acres of the seed. 

 A very good way to learn is to read 

 how other people have succeded. In a 



