March, 1912. 



American ISae Journal 



will head the list, and then we will go 

 on down until we reach the State with 

 the smallest number. That gives us 

 the following table: 



Sealed Cover.s in Cellar in Winter 



Editor Reidenbach, of Pfaelzer Bztg., 

 is quoted in Maerkische Bztg. as say- 

 ing concerning cellaring bees in Amer- 

 ica : 



"The covers are left glued, just as they 

 were, so that the hive is tightly closed on 

 top. That is just the greatest mistake. The 

 cover must be pervious, so that the vitiated 

 air may escape upward." 



One wonders whether Editor Reiden- 

 bach can be familiar with wintering 

 bees in cellar. As wintered outdoors 

 in Germany, with a very small entrance, 

 there might be trouble with sealed cov- 

 ers. But with the very large opportu- 

 nity for the entrance and e.xit of air at 

 the bottom of the hive, as generally 

 allowed in cellars in this country, there 

 is no trouble whateverabout the escape 

 of vitiated air at the bottom. At any 

 rate, the very great success obtained in 

 cellars with sealed covers, when all 

 other conditions are favorable, out- 

 weighs all the theories that may be ad- 

 vanced against it. 



Winter Stores of Bee.s 



If I have to feed, and have only a limited 

 number of colonies to prepare. I would not 

 feed until close to the time when we w<7i' 

 have permanent cold weather. I would give 

 a syrup made of 2',i pounds of granulated 

 sugar to one pound of water brought to a 

 boil: and if I wanted to do what I felt sure 

 would be the best, I would add a teaspoon- 

 ful of tartaric acid to each gallon of syrup. 

 There is then little need of evaporation by 

 the bees, and they would store the syrup in 

 the midst of the cluster No better stores 

 can be provided for bees during winter con- 

 finement. In my estimation, if a bee. keeper 

 has only an early surplus-honey flow, such 

 as clover, his bees are really never in proper 

 condition for best wintering without feed- 

 ing; because if they have enough stores in 

 the hive {which, as a rule, is not the casei, it 

 is not in the place where the bees can keep 

 it in the best condition.— R. F. Hui.rKKMANN, 

 in Gleanings in Bee Culture. 



Will this belief and practise of Mr. 

 Holtermann bear scrutiny? As a rule, 

 he says there is not enough honey in 

 the hive for winter stores where the 

 bees get nothing later than clover. If 

 there is enough gathered from clover 

 to yield a surplus, why should not the 

 bees store enough of it for winter ? 

 Do they not always look out for their 

 own needs, carrying the honey into the 

 supers only when there is no more 

 room in the brood-chamber ? Cer- 

 tainly; but how much room is therefor 



winter stores in the brood-chamber 

 while the clover flow is on ? During 

 that flow the queen is laying heavily, in 

 many cases keeping the equivalent of 6 

 frames entirely filled with brood. Pol- 

 len enough to fill one frame is also 

 present. In a lO-frame hive that leaves 

 only 3 frames for honey, and in an 8- 

 frame hive only a single frame. Honey 

 enough may have been gathered, but it 

 is in the surplus apartment. The in- 

 stinct of the bee is not at fault; it has 

 laid up enough for winter, but man has 

 interfered and taken away as surplus 

 the honey stored above, and now man 

 must make up for that interference by 

 feeding. 



In case there should be enough 

 clover honey in the brood-chamber for 

 winter, it will be in the outside frames 

 and at the upper part of the others. 

 After the close of the harvest the bees 

 have plenty of time to empty the honey 

 from the outer frames and store it cen- 

 trally. Evidently Mr. Holtermann does 

 not feel he can trust them to do that, 

 and possibly he is right, for the bees 

 are slow to unseal honey and move it 

 to a different place, except in sufficient 

 quantity to supply their needs for a 

 short time ahead. 



Where there is a later flow the case 

 is quite different. Gradually the brood- 

 rearing diminishes, and the honey is 

 stored more and more centrally, right 

 where it is best to have it. 



Uncapping- Combs for Extracting 



The Australasian Bee-Keeper has a 

 symposium upon this subect. There is 

 a general agreement in emphasizing 

 the importance of having the uncap- 

 ping-knife sharp. There is difference 

 of opinion as to having the knife hot 

 or cold, with a preponderance of opin- 

 ion in favor of the hot knife. A. P. 

 Young takes this philosophical view: 



For the beginner, a hot knife is undoubt- 

 edly the best, as it facilitates considerably 

 the process of uncapping, as any one who 

 has tried both ways can testify. But for the 

 expert the questior arises: Is it worth the 

 trouble ? If all the appliances available for 

 heatingoftheknivesareastoveanda vessel 

 of hot water, then I should say use a cold 

 knife and maintain a keen edge. On the 

 other hand, however, if one has means for 

 heating knives with a modicum of trouble 

 and expense, under these circumstances it 

 would pay to heat the knife. A bee-keeper 

 then must judge by his own circumstances 

 which is the best plan, and allow others the 

 same privilege. 



One writer says: "I notice in the 

 American bee-papers that the knife 

 which is heated by steam is discarded." 

 Is it? 



For shallow combs J. F. Munday uses 

 a straight butcher-knife, and a down 

 stroke. Otherwise a curved knife with 

 an up stroke. He very strongly favors 

 a thick handle and a narrow blade, as 

 a thin handle or a wide blade requires 

 much more strength. Among the 

 others there is a difference of practise 

 as to using the down or the up stroke. 



Swarming Problem Among Bees 



There seems to be a strong feeling in 

 the minds of many that it is idle to try 

 to breed toward a strain of bees with 

 a diminished tendency toward swarm- 

 ing. Indeed, it may not be too strong 

 an expression to say that some are bit- 

 terly opposed to having anything said 



that favors the attempt to work toward 

 a non-swarming strain. Now is there 

 anything really wicked in trying to 

 produce non-swarmers ? Even if such 

 a thing be never attained, where is the 

 great harm in trying for it .'' Why is it 

 so much worse to advocate non- 

 swarming bees than to advocate non- 

 sitting hens ? Once there were no non- 

 sitters, but careful breeding brought 

 them ? Why not make the same at- 

 tempt for non-swarmers ? 



It is not fair to insist that non-swarm- 

 ing bees must be those that never 

 swarm under any circumstances. Non- 

 sitting hens sit — sometimes. If we can 

 breed out the swarming habit as nearly 

 as the sitting habit has been bred out, 

 will it not be worth while ? 



In view of the general tendency to 

 decry any advocacy of non-swarming 

 bees, it is refreshing to find in the Irish 

 Bee Journal an article by G. W. Bulla- 

 more, in which he closes by saying: 



But I can see that some strains of bees are 

 less sensitive to the conditions which pro- 

 duce the desire to swarm, and also that, in 

 matters of heredity, bees are no exception 

 to the rest of creation. 



And that is why I think that careful breed- 

 ing is the only true method of dealing with 

 the problem of excessive swarming. 



In the course of his article Mr. 

 Bullamore says : 



Another statement is that a swarm will 

 not issue if the colony is headed by a queen 

 of the current year. Dr. Miller says that he 

 tried this, and that it did not answer. He 

 thinks, however, that the rule given by 

 Gravenhorst may be correct. According to 

 Gravenhorst. a colony will not swarm with 

 a queen of the current year if it is a queen 

 of their own rearing. 



But, unfortunately for this rule. Dr. Dzier- 

 zon tells us that the strain of bees in the 

 heath districts of Germany invariably rear 

 drones from a queen of the current year, 

 and not infrequently sends out a swarm led 

 by such a queen. The method of manage- 

 ment has exterminated the non-swarming 

 bees, and has favored excessive swarmers. 



It seems that I did not make myself 

 entirely understood. Let me go some- 

 what into particulars. 



It is probably generally agreed that 

 the age of the queen is quite an impor- 

 tant factor in the swarming problem. 

 Under certain conditions a 3-year-old 

 queen will swarm when under precisely 

 the same conditions a '.i-year-old queen 

 will not swarm. It is also known that 

 some races of bees are more given to 

 swarming than others. This being the 

 case, it is not hard to believe that Grav- 

 enhorst may have had bees so little in- 

 clined to swarm that no swarms would 

 issue with a queen until she had win- 

 tered over one winter, while Dzierzon 

 would find it different with heath-bees, 

 which are great swarmers. 



But another very important factor 

 appears in the case, and that is the con- 

 dition of the colony into which the 

 young queen is introduced. It had been 

 that it was the rule that a queen would 

 not swarm during the same season in 

 which she was born. There were those, 

 I think, who had found no exception 

 to that rule. Taking the rule as one 

 that admitted no exceptions, I said to 

 myself, "Now all I have to do is to in- 

 troduce into each colony a queen only 

 a few days old, and then good-by to 

 the swarming trouble." So about the 

 time colonies were thinking of swarm- 

 ing I introduced a number of young 

 queens, and then it was that I found "it 

 did not answer," for there was swarm- 



