854 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Ocr. 15 



that the Association could do a great deal 

 of good by spreading such a lot of informa- 

 tion from one side of the continent to the 

 other as would do away with a great deal 

 of this ignorance. Another factor that 

 stood in the way was indifference. Men 

 having natural ability, finely equipped in 

 point of physical strength, seemingly have 

 for a motto, "Let 'er go; we have enough 

 to live on." If one shut his eyes, and put 

 his thumbs behind his suspenders, "she" 

 will "go" and nothing will be done. Such 

 indifference one may find all over the coun- 

 try. Mr. Abbott pointed out several lines 

 of work that could be done by the Associa- 

 tion, but it needed men of nerve and deter- 

 mination who will undertake it with enthu- 

 siasm, without regard to result. There had 

 never been a great reform unless some one 

 was willing to lay himself on the altar. 

 Ever since the day that Jesus of Nazareth 

 cried out on Calvary, "It is finished," the 

 work had been finished by self-sacrificing 

 people who were willing to die, if need be, 

 for the work they had in mind. At the 

 close of this. Prof. Benton, Apicultural In- 

 vestigator, who was present, was asked to 

 tell something of his work, which he did. 

 His first effort, he said, had been to secure 

 the giant bees of India. This was set aside 

 for the time. In the mean time the Depart- 

 ment commissioned him to prepare some 

 pamphlets relating to bee-keeping. These 

 were issued by him in the form of bulletins, 

 which had since gone through many edi- 

 tions. A great deal of his work was to 

 answer inquiries that are sent in to the De- 

 partment regarding the subject of bees. 



Of late he had been importing various 

 races of bees, and placed the queens in va- 

 rious apiaries throughout the United States 

 to be tested, mention of which has already 

 been made in the journals. He had been 

 testing all the known systems for rearing 

 queens, and the results of his experiments 

 have been duly recorded. In the line 

 of future work he thought the government 

 might be induced to make the statistics re- 

 lating to bee-keeping more exact, for those 

 now issued were not entirely reliable. The 

 government could send out the blanks, which 

 could be returned filled out, from which re- 

 ports could be summarized for the general 

 bee-keeping industry. In conclusion he 

 stated that he would be glad to receive sug- 

 gestions as to how he might make his work 

 more useful to bee-keepers and to the Asso- 

 ciation. Subsequently a resolution was 

 adopted, endorsing Prof. Benton's work, by 

 the convention as a whole, and praying the 

 Department of Agriculture to enlarge the 

 scope of his work. 



At the close of the discussions following 

 Mr. Benton's talk, Mr. Taylor, Superin- 

 tendent of the Agricultural Building of the 

 Universal Exposition at St. Louis, was in- 

 troduced to the convention. He gave some 

 idea of what said exposition would be, by 

 saying that the management had ten times 

 as much money to spend as the Pan-Amer- 

 ican, and he hoped bee-keepers would not 



be backward in saying how much space 

 they would require and what thej' would 

 expect that exposition to do for apiculture. 

 He had come to receive suggestions, and 

 would be pleased to hear from any one at 

 the meeting. More anon. 



THE SHOOK-SWARM SYMPOSIUM IN THIS IS- 

 SUE ; POSSIBILITIES THAT ARE SAID TO 

 ACCRUE FROM THE PRACTICE. 



In our last issue, and again in this one, 

 we have collated a series of articles on the 

 brushed or shook swarm method of handling 

 bees. It is a little surprising, not to say 

 amazing, that so many have been using the 

 plan, and all, with one exception, report it 

 a success for controlling swarming for pro- 

 ducing comb honey, for curing foul brood — 

 in short, putting the question of swarming 

 at a time when the apiarist can handle it 

 when he has the most leisure, and can do it 

 himself without hiring extra help. 



There have been comparatively few arti- 

 cles on the subject till quite lately. Two 

 years ago Mr. L. Stachelhausen — see page 

 840, Nov 1, 1900, first brought it to the at- 

 tention of American bee-keepers in such a 

 way that they began to grasp and did grasp 

 the value of the shook-swarm method so 

 persistently advocated in Germany. It is 

 evident the article made a deep impression, 

 far and wide, if we may judge from the 

 number who read it and have since tested 

 the plan for two seasons, and are now so 

 enthusiastic that some are ready to cry out 

 "Eureka!" because thej- believe the long- 

 looked-for solution of the swarming prob- 

 lem with small brood-chamber has come. 

 Whether or not we have reached that most 

 desirable goal I will not pretend to say. 

 But there is some evidence before us that 

 seems to indicate very strongly that some 

 have "got there" and are reaping the ben- 

 efits, both in the amount of comb honey and 

 in the matter of reducing the labor. Let 

 us review briefly some of the results claim- 

 ed: 



1. Swarming can be controlled at out- 

 yards with small brood - chambers, when 

 run for comb honey. This is of tremendous 

 importance, if true. 



2. A brushed swarm may be stronger and 

 produce more comb honey than a natural 

 one, because the former may have all the 

 flying bees, and subsequently receive, at a 

 second drive, the brood that is hatched from 

 the parent colony. If reports may be be- 

 lieved, such a powerful force of bees in one 

 brood-nest means a larger j'ield of comb 

 honey. 



3. It appears that starters are just as 

 good as full sheets of foundation, under 

 some conditions at least. If this is true, it 

 will save buying some brood foundation. 

 If a young ([ueen is in the hive, and the su- 

 pers are put on soon enough, it is asserted 

 that worker brood will be reared about as 

 fast 'as the queen can take it. But suppose 

 that drone comb is built out instead of 

 worker, no great harm results, it is argued; 



