724 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



groves on either side. If, the next day or 

 two, he takes the train northward, he will 

 leave these beautiful fields, and again into 

 the desert he plunges — more hot winds, 

 more sand and dust and grit. Ever and 

 anon he will see a mirage, ever fleeting; 

 now clear and distinct, now a haze. 



Do you wonder that the best localities in 

 the West have been " gobbled up " long ere 

 this, and why it is that the settlers are 

 crovvded on comparatively small areas of 

 ground? If, for example, some of the bee- 

 keepers in the vicinity of Hanford were to 

 move north and south to get away from 

 their pear-blighted neighbors, they proba- 

 bly would have to squat right down in the 

 open desert. There's the pinch. If one de- 

 sires to go to pastures new he may have to 

 jump hundreds of miles ere he gets to an- 

 other arable portion of land. 



BRUSHED OR "SHOOK" SWARMS, BOARDMAN 

 ON. 



When the August issue of the Bee-keep- 

 ers'' Review came to hand I eagerly scanned 

 its pages, as I always do. My eyes stopped 

 when I came across the heading, " Shook 

 Swarms," or, as Dr. Miller prefers to call 

 it, "brushed" swarms; and when I saw 

 the writer was H. R. Boardman I thought 

 " here is a man who certainly is conserva- 

 tive and careful. I never knew him to rec- 

 ommend a thing unless it had real merit; " 

 and as I read it over I noted that he said, 

 " // is the only reliable method that we have 

 found that ivould keep tlie sivarming impulse 

 U7ider control, and also give satisfactory re- 

 sults in surplus.'' ' The italics in this case 

 are mine. There are some other interesting 

 things, but I have concluded I can do no 

 better than to copy the article entire, with 

 postscript: 



when I had several out-apiaries to care for, and 

 swarming beca:ne somewhat of a problem. I found it 

 expedient to force the swarms by shaking the bees out 

 into an empty hive on the old stand, with only starters 

 in the frames, at a time when the honey-flow was 

 good, and, after the queen had commenced laying, fol- 

 low the swarm with the partly filled secdous. 



Swarms treated in this manner can be t?-usied, ior a 

 time, at least, and it is the only reliable method I have 

 ever found that would keep the swarming impulse un- 

 der control, and also give satisfactory results in sur- 

 plus. 



At the close of the season, if I do not wish for the 

 increase, I unite the swarms thus divided, which I 

 leave near together for that very purpose, by placing 

 one hive over or upon the other, reserving the young- 

 est or most desirable queen. 



I use a deep frame which has a cross-bar in the mid- 

 dle, and this gives two places from which to build 

 comb, instead of one, which is a decided advantage in 

 starting. 



I have used wired frames for this purpose, with good 

 results, the wires running perpendicular. The combs 

 will be built upon the wires in this manner with sur- 

 prising nicety, many of them comparing favorably 

 with those built upon foundation. From the samples 

 of combs thus produced, I select the best for future 

 use, and render the objectionable ones into wax. In 

 this way 1 make wax production a source of profit. 



For several years, in August, I moved about 100 col- 

 onies each year, about 12 miles, to the buckwheat 

 fields on the prairie, and returned them later in the 

 .season. These colonies I treated in the same way, and 

 thus saved hauling the stores back and forth, as well 

 as keeping the buckwheat and late honey by itself. 



We are having poor seasons for several years past, 

 and there is much less swarming, hence these different 



conditions have to be met by different methods ; and 

 I am not practicing this "shake-out " method as much 

 as formerly. 



I know no reason why it is not adapted to any local- 

 ity or season in which the honey flow is reasonably 

 good. 



P. S. — In the last issue of Gleanings is an article 

 on the " shake-out plan ;" and I notice that the in- 

 struction is to shake out every bee from the old colony. 

 I don't advise this ; on the contrary. I advise, bv ad 

 means, to leave bees enough to protect the hive until 

 the brood has time to hatch ; and especially take this 

 precaution in out-j'ards when there will be no one to 

 look after the bees. I had one very lively case of rob- 

 bing, in an out-yard, bj' neglecting this precaution. I 

 also close down the entrance very clo.se. Sometimes I 

 have closed it entirely with what I call a robber-guard 

 until the bees get a little house-cleaning done, and 

 have recovered from their panic and confusion. 



H. R. B. 



I presume Mr. Boardman certainly errs 

 on the safe side when he counsels against 

 shaking all the bees out; and yet I know 

 my friend Vernon Burt has done this with- 

 out any bad results; but what he may be 

 able to do, others may not, without consid- 

 erable loss in brood. 



Dr. Miller strenuously objects to the use 

 of the word " shook " when applied to 

 swarms, as being ungrammatical and in- 

 elegant ; but " shook " swarms are one 

 thing and "brushed" swarms are anoth- 

 er; and to my mind the word "shook," 

 even though it be ungrammatical, implies a 

 more violent jar of the frames than the 

 word "shaken," which we both admit is 

 grammatical and correct. No easy-going 

 shaking will remove the bees from the 

 frame, but a frame that has been " shook " 

 in the manner that Stachelhausen refers to 

 has been so severely jarred or Jounced that 

 every bee has lost its foothold before it 

 knew what was up. In the case of these 

 forced swarms it is sometimes best to brush 

 only; but at other times one had better 

 shake. If there is a lot of new honey in the 

 combs, the brush must, of course, be used. 



I asked Dr. Miller why it was that so 

 good a thing should not have more recogni- 

 tion among the bee-keeping fraternity. He 

 writes: 



I think that the reason more has not been said about 

 brushed swarms in this country is because it's nobody's 

 baby, but a foundling, ann I think its father was the 

 late C. J. H. Gravenhorst, who called such a swarm a 

 " fegling," which means a brushed thing, or, as you 

 called it, a brushed swarm. It is only courtesy to him 

 to give it the name he gave it (brushed swarm) rather 

 than " shook " swarm. 



Well, now, say: If the brushed or "shook" 

 swarm (beg pardon. Dr. Miller) is what 

 some good men claim it to be, it is the big- 

 gest thing, in my estimation, that has been 

 brought before the bee-keeping public in the 

 last year or two. If it does not receive 

 greater meads of praise than it has, it will 

 not be the fault of Gleanings. 



I should like to hear froin every one of our 

 subscribers or readers who has had any 

 experience with it. To be able to control 

 swarming with small brood-chambers — 

 force the swarms artificially at our con- 

 venience — and to force them into the supers, 

 and to increase our surplus, and to be able 

 to dispense with an attendant at outyards 

 during swarming time — why, it is almost 

 too good to believe. Let us know all about it. 



