MAI J en 15, 1915 



241 



lioiioy is easily accomplished. Broo<l may 

 1)0 lifted inlo upper stories. ;tiul empty 

 comhs siiveii ; l)nt it is not so easy to siive 

 loom to colonies inn for comb honey Avilhoul 

 sacrificing: part of the crop. Shaking' the 

 strongest colonies olT aiul allowing' them to 

 run in on to full sets of combs, at the 

 beginning of the honey-llow, usually settl'^s 

 those colonies for the season. But if the 

 honey-tlow is long- and the queen prolitic. 

 these colonies may need attention. 



Tt is not at all impossible, howexi'r. that 

 an examination every week or ten thiys will 

 reveal no queen-cells started, in which casp 

 there is nothing' to do. If queen-cups are 

 found with eggs in them, these may be 

 destroyed and swarming may not take place: 

 but if large lan'te are found in cells it i? 

 necessary to take away all brood aid gi\e 

 drawn combs in place. 



If queen-cells are started, and eggs laid 

 in thera. and if they are immediately de- 

 sti'oyed by the beekeeper, the bees still store 

 honey. But if the cells become well ad- 

 vanced, the idea of swai'ming spreads and 

 strengl^hens — motion gets started in the new 

 direction, with how much force many a 

 beekeeper can testify. 



The problem then is psychological. We 

 are first to satisfy the craving of the bees 

 to rear brood, giving plenty of room for the 

 purpose; and as soon as the honey-flow 

 begins, we are to satisfy the craving for 

 storing honey by giving plenty of room 

 above the brood-chamber. 



xVnd now attention must be called to 



something which I do not remember to have 

 seen in }>rint. In their wild state, bees do 

 not labor hard to store honey. They labor 

 to raise bees. The storing of honey is not 

 the object: that is merely an incident. Rais- 

 ing brood is the real object. But man has 

 reversed this. lie has made the storing of 

 honey his object, and so it happens that 

 usually swarming comes from lack of room, 

 for the queen. The j>erpetuation of the 

 species is the great activity of life.' 



To sunnnarize briefly: To prevent swarm- 

 ing, see that your bees are comfortably 

 housed, have plenty of feed at all times, are 

 always strong in numbers, have a good 

 queen, and, in the honey-fiow, plenty of 

 room for storing honej^ and rearing brood, 

 and you will not be troubled much Avith 

 swarming. I'o accomplish this requires a 

 good deal of work, but it is the price which 

 must be paid. 



Since writing the above, I came across a 

 peculiar verification of the law of swarming 

 as I have formulated it. Dr. Miller tells us 

 that he hived a sw'arm of bees on a set of 

 drone combs to determine what would hap- 

 pen. The bees promptly swarmed out. 

 Why? Because a condition stood in the 

 way of the performance of the predomi- 

 nant bee function — the rearing of worker 

 brood. It is noticeable that a swarm in- 

 variably prepares for the rearing of worker 

 brood, and never builds drone comb until 

 that has been attended to. This condition 

 obviously comes under the heading, " un- 

 comfortable hive." 



DESTROYING ANTS WITH CARBON BISULPHIDE 



BY ARTHUR E. AULT 



On page 70. Jan. 15, E. S. Miles, of 

 Dunlap, Iowa, tells of his partial success in 

 destroying ants by the use of axle grrease 

 and kerosene and a y)lentiful use of fire. 



In my experience in keeping bees in 

 Florida T have suffered very little loss from 

 ants. 



Two j-ears ago, in one of my apiaries a 

 .small red ant was very plentiful. These 

 build nests in the ground, some of the nests 

 1)eing several feet in diameter. They are 

 fierce biters, and it is very annoying to work 

 by one of their nests. The first T observed 

 of them attacking the bees was when I found 

 a weak colony with the comb half covered 

 with the ants. The bees seemed greatly 

 disturbed, and on ray next visit the ants 

 were the only occupants of the liive. 



Later T formed a stronc nucleus in 

 another part of the apiary, when •within an 



hour the ants coAcred the combs and the bees 

 deserted the hive. I then secured a pint of 

 carbon bisulphide for which I paid 50 cents. 

 With a hoe I dug into the ant-nest until I 

 found the ant eggs, when I poui'ed in a 

 tablespoonful or more of the liquid, closing 

 the hole and covering the nest -with a hive- 

 cover to confine the gas, as bisulphide of 

 carbon is very volatile. 



Returning to this apiary after about a 

 week I found only a few of the ants, which 

 I proceeded to treat as before. That was 

 two years ago: and though I sometimes see 

 a few ants about the apiary they are not 

 sufficiently numerous to cause any trouble. 



As will be seen, this method of destroying 

 ants can be used only where the ant-nests 

 can be located; but in such cases it is very 

 effective. 



Bradentown, Fla. 



