274 



American liee Journal 



good practice by many to take brood 

 and bees from strong colonies to unite 

 with weak ones. The writer has prac- 

 ticed this for years without any fight- 

 ing among the bees. No precautions 

 were taken ; a frame of brood with the 

 adhering bees was taken from one col- 

 ony and placed next to the outside 

 frame of brood in the other colony. Of 

 course, care was taken to see that the 

 queen was not on the frame that was 

 taken. 



The same plan was sometimes used 

 if 2 colonies were to be united. Gen- 

 erally one of the queens was removed 

 a day or so before the uniting, although 

 if there was no choice of queens that 

 trouble was not always taken. A frame 

 of brood and bees was changed from 

 one hive to the other, and then at in- 

 tervals of a day or two the others were 

 added. 



A shorter plan may be taken. From 

 the 2 hives containing the colonies to 

 be united, take the unoccupied combs, 

 leaving in both only enough combs for 

 one hive. When the bees are settled 

 upon the remaining combs, put into 

 one of the hives (or into an empty hive) 

 one of tlie combs at one side of the 

 hive, then a comb from the other liive, 

 and continue thus alternating the 

 combs until all are in the hive. The 

 bees are so mixed up that there is no 

 fighting. 



This last plan maybe varied, perhaps, 

 with advantage. Before putting the 

 comb in the hive, shake the bees from 

 it in front of the hive. This gives ad- 

 ditional confusion to the bees. 



Newspaper Pl.\n of Uniting. 



A few years ago the writer hit upon 

 a plan that has so far proved better 

 than any other. Take the cover from 

 one of the hives and cover the hive 

 with a newspaper. Then set the other 



hive over this. The bees will thus be 

 kept entirely separate. By and by they 

 will gnaw a hole through the paper 

 large enough to allow the passage of a 

 single bee at a time. Gradually more 

 and more of the paper will be torn away 

 until it will be practically the same as 

 if there were no separation, and there 

 will be a free intermingling of the bees 

 of each colony. All this has come 

 about so gradually that there has been 

 no thought of fighting ; at least no re- 

 port of any such fighting has come to 

 the knowledge of the writer. 



This method of uniting is equally 

 effective whether the colonies to be 

 united are equal in strength or very un- 

 equal. If unequal it is well to place 

 the weaker over the stronger. Yet it 

 makes no very great difference. If one 

 colony has been made queenless, place 

 it on top of the hive containing the 

 queen. A special advantage of this 

 plan is that the bees in the upper hive 

 are imprisoned for a day or so, and 

 when they do find their way out they 

 mark the location and do not return to 

 the old location. If one colony be put 

 over the other without the newspaper, 

 the weaker one is likely to le killed. 



Bees Uniting Themselves. 



Bees do not unseldom unite on their 

 own account; sometimes peaceably; 

 sometimes anything but peaceably. If 

 a hunger-swarm attempts to enter the 

 hive of another colony, the likelihood 

 is that the strange bees will be killed. 

 Two or more swarms may unite peace- 

 ably. Where queens are clipped, if a 

 swarm issues and then returns to its 

 hive, if some of the bees go to the 

 wrong hive they may be killed, unless 

 it be th?t they return to a hiVe from 

 which another swarm has issued and 

 returned within a few hours. Within 



a few days after a swarm has been 

 hived it will receive kindly another 

 swarm that may enter of its own ac- 

 cord, or be hived there by the bee- 

 keeper, provided there be a laying 

 queen or a virgin in each hive. But if 

 an after-swarm be thus united with a 

 prime swarm, the after-swarm is likely 

 to be slaughtered. 

 Marengo, 111. 



Improvement in Bees— British 

 View 



BY V. W. L. SL.\DEN. 



Allow me to express dissent from the 

 opinion quoted on page 134 of the 

 American Bee Journal, that the honey- 

 bee, being a highly specialized animal, 

 its improvement is doubtful. 



Improvement depends upon two con- 

 ditions, variation and selection. As 

 far as it has been possible to ascertain, 

 variation occurs in every known ani- 

 mal and plant. The fact that one col- 

 ony of bees produces more honey than 

 another under identical conditions, 

 shows that variation occurs in the 

 very character we most wish to im- 

 prove. Where man has been able to 

 breed an animal or plant by selection, 

 he has always succeeded in making 

 some improvement. The reason why 

 so little progress has been made in the 

 improvement of honey-bees is the diffi- 

 culty of controlling the fathers. 



This difficulty, as Dr. Bonney sug- 

 gests, may be overcome by isolation, 

 /. c, by mating at a spot where there 

 are no other bees within a radius of 6 

 or 7 miles, but this is not possible in 

 settled districts; moreover, it is in 

 these that we want to test the honey- 



Kll'lM.K COIKT .XriAKV Ol' MK, 1'. W. L. SlAllEN. IN ENGI.ANH. 



