April 16, 1903. 



XHE AMERICAN, BEE JOURNAL. 



245 



at this stage, when there apparently is back-bone and rib- 

 bing- showing, and it is nearly flat across the cell, it is most 

 .ropy, and that is about the stage when the cappin^js are 

 sunken in ; then a toothpick would draw it out probably 

 nearly the length of the cell before letting go; but runv, at 

 this time of the year it has become thickened by the cool- 

 ness of the atmosphere, and would not draw it so far ; it 

 would be thicker. 



Dr. Miller — Did I understand that that curled-up head 

 is always present ? Will you always recognize that ? 



Mr. France — I have never known it to fail as yet ; both 

 from samples from our own State and from nearly all of the 

 States where I know of the disease. I have tried to com- 

 pare it from different localities, and never knew it to fail. 

 I find that in comparing that of the different localities with 

 that of my own State, it varies little. 



Dr. Miller — Will you tell us whose writing you ever 

 saw.that mentioned that feature of a turned-up head ? 



Mr. France — I think Dr. Miller, for one. 



Dr. Miller— No, I think not ; I think I never saw nor 

 heard of it before. 



Mr. France — That is the one thing. And one thing 

 further : I have so often taken the comb out of the hive 

 like this one I find in the window, and invariably when I 

 go to a bee-keeper and examine the yard, if one colony 

 seems to be stronger than another I pass that and go to the 

 weaker one. In the weaker colonies I will find any disease 

 if it is in the yard anywhere. I carefully open them, and if 

 it is very bad undoubtedly I get an odor. If we look into a 

 comb in that direction, straight in [indicating], that comb 

 looks fairly clean, but if you want to see it, turn the top 

 towards you, so that your eyes strike the lower side-wall ; 

 then a little from the front end you will see that dried, 

 hard, curled-up larva in there ; and in this one, while they 

 are hardly as thick in depth as the side-walls are, they are 

 considerably aged. 



How many of you can be here to-morrow before half 

 past nine? I want you to know every stage of this foul 

 brood while we are here, because I have the samples, and I 

 would hate to commit myself on examination of the comb 

 by lamplight, although I did go to a yard the first of July 

 after nine o'clock at night to inspect it, because it was 

 demanded of me. I had gone through two apiaries, finding 

 several colonies diseased. I had an appointment at a con- 

 siderable distance, over 100 miles from there the next day. 

 It would not do to skip neighbor Smith's place, so I called 

 at his house about nine o'clock ; we had only a lamp. I 

 asked for the weakest colonies in the yard. I opened the 

 weakest one, and said: " Mr. Smith, shut up the hive in- 

 stantly ; this comb must go to the house." They had one 

 of these glass reflectors on the lamp ; it hung on the side of 

 the wall. We looked the comb over ; it was similar to this 

 one ; the first thing I noticed was the sunken cappings ; run 

 a match or toothpick in there and draw it out, and you could 

 see that brown, ropy stage ; then where the ribs were we 

 had a knife and cut away the upper portion of the rib on 

 the lower side-wall, and we could see those black, dried- 

 down scales. "Well," he says, •' What will I do?" "Treat 

 your bees, and do it to-morrow." I told him what to do, 

 and he said he would do it. I was back there just 23 days 

 from that time, reviewing that section of country ; the bass- 

 wood was in bloom ; each of the hives had eight full sheets 

 of foundation drawn out, brood well on towards maturity, 

 and 48 full sections ready on each of his hives. It shows 

 what can be done if it is done at the right season ; if done 

 during the basswood season it doesn't seem to set them 

 back much. 



Dr. Miller— To help us to understand that same point, 

 will you refer to the picture and tell us about that lower 

 part ; is that meant to be an outside or bottom cell ? 



Mr. France— This is supposed to represent, as if I had 

 cut away the upper side, showing ju?t the lower, here being 

 the lower, and this the extreme bottom of the wall [indicat- 



Dr. Miller— The upper part, as it stands there, is the 

 mouth of the cell ? 



Mr. France — Yes, sir. 



Dr. Miller— So that the mouth of the cell is lower down 7 



Mr. France— I tried to illustrate it in this form, but 

 can not make a good drawing. 



Dr. Miller— The point in it is, is that turned-up head 

 the bottom of the cell or mouth ? 



Mr. France— Yes, the lower side-wall near the front 

 end, as if this were the cell [indicating]. lean touch it 

 almost the moment I touch the cell. 



Question— The septum in that case is away back ? 



Answer — Yes. ( Continued next week. ) 



Contributed Articles. \ 



A Plan for Prevention of Swarming. 



BV I,. STACHKr,H.4USKN. 



DR. C. C. MILLER:— I just received from Chicago your 

 pretty book, " Forty Years Among the Bees," and com- 

 menced at once to read it and I am delighted with the 

 many practical hints it contains. 



It seems to me you are still misunderstanding my plan 

 of preventing swarms — and perhaps a " certain editor " is 

 to blame, who talked of forced and "shook" swarms in 

 combination with my plan. What you say (on pages 173 

 and 174 of your book) is certainly true for these forced 

 swarms, but not for my plan. You say : "There are thous- 

 ands of prospective bees in the brood taken away." That 

 is the reason I unite these bees, hatching from the brood 

 taken away, as soon as they are of any value to the main 

 colony. Certainly the young bees do honsework, but in the 

 main colony (forced swarm) is at first none or very few 

 brood ; as soon as the young bees are employed in the 6ther 

 hive with nursing the brood ; as soon as young bees are 

 needed in the main colony they can be given by brushing 

 off some of the combs. That will not cause swarming, as 

 long as there is no surplus of young bees compared with the 

 open brood (Gerstung theory). 



Another explanation : I see, page 113, you have ob- 

 served the advantages of large hives for development in the 

 spring. An 8-frame hive is entirely too small for this pur- 

 pose, consequently you give two stories as soon as needed ; 

 but these two stories are not practical for comb-honey pro- 

 duction, so you crowd the bees and 8 brood-combs again 

 into one story, when the honey-flow commences (page 130). 

 You take away 1, 2 or more brood-combs and at some cir- 

 cumstances some bees, too. I think that is weakening the 

 colony considerable, and your colony is now in just such a 

 condition that the swarming-fever is induced, because the 

 queen has not enough empty cells to lay eggs in them. 



I, too, use very large hives in the spring. When the 

 honey-flow commences I crowd the bees into a small brood- 

 chamber without brood, and give the supers. Now comes 

 my invention : 



By using the Heddon plan to prevent after-swarms, the 

 bees, which hatched from the brood taken away, are united 

 with this colony as soon as they really do field-work, that is, 

 as they fly. Every single bee of the colony, in whatever 

 stage she may be, is used in this colony, as soon as she can 

 be useful, and the egg-laying of the queen is interrupted 

 very little. 



You say that with you a colony, which shows no desire 

 to swarm, will give more surplus than one in which swarm- 

 ing is prevented in some way. This is not so in my locality 

 I have no trouble at all with colonies swarming during the 

 honey-flow, but I never could get satisfactory crops of comb 

 honey from an old colony with a brood-chamber as large or 

 larger than a 10-frame hive. Swarms hived just at the be- 

 ginning of the honey-flow have given me the most surplus 

 honey. But they have the disadvantage, that they are 

 getting weaker every day ; but that is easy to overcome. 

 Let the brood hatch in another hive outside of the swarm, 

 and unite with the swarm as soora as they can be useful. 



A main advantage of my plan is, that no queen must be 

 hunted up. The whole manipulation does not take much 

 time, and can be done when convenient. I do not think a 

 simpler and better plan could be invented. 



I used this plan the first time about five years ago ; for 

 two years I have not produced any section-honey, because 

 here bulk-comb honey pays better. Othsrwise I would 

 probably have tried a few variations. For instance, the 

 automatic plan of uniting, as recommended by F. L. Thomp- 

 son, in the Progressive Bee-Keeper, seems worth trying. 

 Another plan proposed by M. R. Kuehne, California, in a 

 letter to me, I will try this year. A colony is shaken on 

 starters and the sections given ; on top of them is laid a 

 board with an opening closed by a double wire screen (as 

 the Root's use for getting queens fertilized over full colo- 

 nies); the brood-combs, with enough bees to protect them, 

 are set in a story over this wire screen. Now these bees in 

 the upper story can rear a queen. I would give them a ripe 

 queen-cell, and as soon as this queen is fertilized and lay- 



