470 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 23, 1903. 



and there will not be the loss from starvation. Another 

 reason, the other bees are not more likely to rob that pile 

 than they are to have robbed the weak colony that was 

 there before. If a new boy comes to school he has to run 

 the gauntlet until he gets settled down. If there is a 

 change made in the apiary, and there is any tendency to 

 rob a colony, place it in a new place and it will be robbed. 

 That's the case in my locality. 



Mr. Horstmann — Did you ever have robbing during a 

 good honey-flow ? 



Dr. Miller — I don't know. 



Mr. Horstmann — I think it is very seldom. 



Dr. Miller — I don't believe I did in a good honey-flow. 

 I have had it in a honey-flow, though. You set a colony in 

 a new place and the bees will try that, and if you pile this 

 pile of brood upon a weak colony that has had its place 

 there, they will not try it. 



Mr. Wheeler — I have had quite a little experience along 

 that line. I have been practicing that shaking process for 

 more than ten years, and I find that even in a good honey- 

 flow, honey coming in one day, we might have rain that 

 night, and the next day the robbers would be out. 



Dr. Miller — Still, that would be hardly called in a good 

 honey-flow at that time. 



Mr. Wheeler — My plan is to shake all the bees off, for 

 fear you don't get the queen. If you don't get the queen it 

 is too bad. You have to have the queen. After the bees 

 are all off, I take the combs and hive and put them right 

 where the old hive stood. I shake my bees all to one side, 

 young bees and queen ; I put the old comb on the old stand; 

 the workers come in from the field and they take care of 

 that comb. At night I carry that hive of old bees off any- 

 where I please. It takes from 28 to 48 hours for the old 

 bees to go back to their old home where the hive is, and by 

 that time there is brood enough in the hive to take care of 

 itself. 



Dr. Miller — Mr. Wheeler has a very bright way. 



Mr. Abbott — Since I got to be a farmer I can't read 

 everything on earth. I kind of got behind the Chicago 

 swarm business. I supposed it was to get rid of swarming, 

 but Mr. Horstmann says it is to get clean combs. When 

 the bees are healthy, and there is no disease in a colony, 

 does it ever pay to melt up a comb 7 I had an impression 

 that a comb once made was worth more money as a comb. 

 I have used combs for extracting that were 10, 12, and IS 

 years old. I don't know whether I got good honey or not. 

 I always got the premium and 20 cents a pound for it. It 

 seems to me if it is worth while to buy foundation, if one 

 didn't want them, and there was no disease connected with 

 them, they would sell for more as combs than they would in 

 any other way. Maybe I misunderstood. 



Dr. Miller — You haven't been reading ! 



Mr. Horstmann — I am going to experiment. One rea- 

 son is to get rid of foul brood. 



Mr. Abbott — Let me ask this question : Then you 

 didn't mean to say that you destroyed the combs if your 

 bees didn't have foul brood ? 



Mr. Horstmann — No. They are very handy to use for 

 extracting honey. 



Mr. Baldridge — The object of that question was not 

 only to know what to do with the brood, but to secure all 

 the bees in that hive, in the working hive. My plan secures 

 all the bees in the original hive to store honey. 



Mr. Wheeler — Doesn't mine? 



Mr. Baldridge — I didn't say it didn't. No moth-miller 

 can get in if the escape is on, or no robbers. You secure 

 every bee in that hive without the loss of one on the origi- 

 nal stand, on the parent stand working in the supers. 



Dr. Miller — I think Mr. Wheeler's plan is taking a mean 

 advantage of the bees. He takes everything away and sets 

 empty comb in an empty hive, and the flight bees come 

 back and occupy that, and they take care of them, and then 

 he puts them on another place and they come out and go 

 back to that same location again and join the swarm. I 

 would like that you all get that idea of the two shifts that 

 he makes, because these field-bees will hold to that one spot. 



Mr. Niver — Do you all forget Doolittle's plan that he 

 got up ten years ago ? He made three swarms out of two 

 normal colonies and a nucleus. There are certain things 

 necessary to that plan. You must have as many nuclei as 

 swarms, and, next, you must know within 10 days when the 

 honey-flow will start. If you have ordered up your honey- 

 flow and it gets there, and is delivered on time, you are all 

 right ; and if not, you are all wrong. We have tried that, 

 because we can tell pretty near in New York State when 

 our honey-flow is coming on, it varies but little. If it is 

 bad weather, and the blossoms don't come, we have to feed. 



To make these swarms that way is a ticklish piece of busi- 

 ness to understand. I think I talked a day and a half to 

 Dr. Nussle to make him see it. Mr. Doolittle proceeds as 

 follows, as told in his " Scientific Queen-Rearing :" 



SWARMING. 



After trying all the plans of non-swarming hives given, with no 

 success, I settled down to the conclusion that such a thing did not ex- 

 ist when working for comb honey, and, even if it did, I doubt if as 

 large a yield of honey could be obtained as by the use of swarming 

 hives. Then, if we are to use swarming hives, the question coming 

 next is, shall we mal^e our swarms by dividing, or by letting them 

 swarm naturally? Lately I have used both ways with what seemed to 

 me the best results. It will be seen that our bees are all in readiness 

 15 days before the height of the white clover harvest, and where this 

 is the main dependence for honey, all swarming should be done within 

 the next five days. In this case swarming would have to be done 

 largely by division, but as basswood is my main honey crop, coming 

 about .July .5, 1 do not practice artificial swarming, only so far as is 

 necessary to have all swarming done 10 days before basswood opens. 

 All swarms issuing previous to 15 days before basswood are hived 

 singly in hives containing frames of empty comb, and a week from the 

 time of hiving, boxes are put on in the same manner as described be- 

 fore. Those issuing, the next five days, are hived two swarms in a 

 hive, when convenient to do so, and the full complement of boxes put 

 on at ouce. If not convenient, the swarm, after being hived, is set on 

 the stand of another colony which has not swarmed, and such colony 

 changed to a new location, thus securing to the swarm all the field- 

 bees from the colony moved. Each swarm thus made has given them 

 a hive full of empty combs, and the boxes are put on at once. Thus, 

 it will be seen all the swarms'are in splendid condition to take advan- 

 tage of the basswood harvest as soon as it commences. 



Where I have two swarms together, the queen belonging to one 

 parent colony is allowed to go back, when such hive is moved to a 

 new location and the doutde swarm set in its place. The colonies 

 losing their queens by their going with the swarms are allowed to rear 

 their own queens, for (after thoroughly trying the plan) giving each 

 colony a laying queen immediately after swarming, has not proved a 

 success with me. 



Eight days after a swarm has issued from a hive I open it, and, 

 having ascertained that a queen has emerged from the cell, by finding 

 one open at the end, I cut off all the rest and thus stop all second 

 swarming. These cells, thus cut off, are placed in nucleus hives, if I 

 wish more queens. By waiting until the first queen is hatched, I have 

 a certain thing when the cells are all off, which is not the case where 

 all but one cell is taken away four or five days after swarming; for 

 the bees will often rear queens from the larviv still in the hive at that 

 time, and also the cell thus left will often fail to hatch. 



When I think basswood will open in about 10 days, I proceed to 

 make colonies from all the rest which have not swarmed, as follows: 

 A hive is filled with frames of empty combs and placed upon the stand 

 of one of these colonies which has not swarmed, and all the boxes are 

 taken off and placed thereon, then all the bees are shaken and brushed 

 off their combs of brood and honey in front of this prepared hive into 

 which they will run as fast as shaken off. Thus, I have a colony that 

 is ready for the honey harvest, as they have the queen, bees, and 

 partly-tilled boxes all in readiness for work. Previous to this, nuclei 

 have been started, so that I have plenty of laying queens to use as I 

 need them. 



I next take all the combs of brood from which the bees were 

 brushed except one, arranging them in the hive the bees were shaken 

 out of, and carry them to the stand of another colony which has not 

 swarmed. Next 1 take the comb of brood which was left out, and go 

 to one of the nuclei, taking out the frame having the laying queen on 

 it, and place the comb of brood in its place. Take the frame, bees, 

 queen, and all and set it in the place left vacant for it when arranging 

 the combs of brood. Now put on the boxes, and having all complete, 

 I move the colony to a new stand, and set the prepared hive in its 

 place. Thus, I have a laying queen and enough of her own bees to 

 protect her, together with a hive filled with combs of brood and all the 

 field-bees from the removed colony. In a very few days the colonies 

 are ready for the boxes, and generally make the best colonies I have 

 for storing honey. The loss of bees to the removed colony stops the 

 swarming impulse, and in about a week they have so regained their loss 

 that they are ready for the boxes again. 



It will be seen my aim has been, in using these several plans, to 

 get all my colonies strong enough to work in the boxes (during the 

 best harvest) to advantage, and still have none of them desire to 

 swarm during the height of the best flow of honey. By adopting a 

 plan called "nucleus swarming," I once had my bees (after an early 

 division) nearly all swarming in the height of the honey harvest, by 

 which I lost at least -$500 ; for swarm they would in spite of all I 

 could do, and, while the swarming fever is on but little work will be 

 done in the sections, as all apiarists know. This taught me a lesson ; 

 I hope to profit by all such lessons, else why the use of learning them? 



That's the old Doolittle plan. As I said, it works finely, 

 providing your " goods " are delivered that you order — a 

 good honey-flow in ten days. 



Dr. Miller — I think you will find pretty nearly the same 

 thing in the American Bee Journal of 1861. 



Dr. Nussle — I have a good man)- journals, but not that 

 one. 



Mr. Niver— I found that in the American Bee-Keeper ; 

 I think it was at least 10 years ago, and perhaps older. 

 (Continued next week.) 



