64 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



each and empty combs substituted as here- 

 inbefore described. Two of the colonies 

 showed no disposition at anytime to swarm, 

 but from the other a swarm issued before the 

 empty combs were fully occupied but it re- 

 turned almost immediately and made no 

 farther attempt. I think the issuing of the 

 swarm was owing to some abnormal condi- 

 tion. No further changing of the combs 

 was found to be necessary. 



It would be an error to draw an argument 

 for the efficiency of this invention from this 

 trial. It was in reality no test, for but a 

 small per cent, of the colonies in the apiary 

 cast swarms. No thoroughly reliable test of 

 it can be had short of a repetition of its use 

 during several seasons favorable to swarm- 

 ing. A word of caution may not be out of 

 place here against haste in expending any 

 money for this or any other untried apicul- 

 tural appliance upon mere theoretical 

 grounds. The will of the bees often runs 

 counter to theories. It is safe to await favor- 

 able decisions of at least one reliable prac- 

 tical apiarist. 



langdon's non-swarming attachment. 



An extended account of a somewhat ex- 

 tensive trial of Langdon's device for the pre- 

 vention of swarming made during the sea- 

 son of 1893, was given in the report of the 

 work in the apiary for that year. A descrip- 

 tion of the attachment and a statement of 

 the theory upon which it is expected to ope- 

 rate in order to acomplish the purpose in- 

 tended are also given there and need not be 

 repeated. 



The character of the season already refer- 

 red to, prevented the making of any crucial 

 test of this appliance, but it was used to a 

 limited extent. One attachment was affixed 

 to a pair of hives containing colonies of less 

 than the average strength so early in the sea- 

 son that swarming had not been thought of 

 and no swarming resulted, but, as non- 

 swarming was the rule, the failure to cast a 

 swarm could not be with certainty referred 

 to the influence of the device. Ijater in the 

 season two colonies, each of which had be- 

 gun the building of queen cells preparatory 

 to swarming, were selected and given an at- 

 tachment to determine, if possible, whether 

 the desire to swarm when it has once arisen 

 could in any way be effectually laid by the 

 use of the attachment. The result was that, 

 though the bees were shifted from one hive 

 to the other as often as once in three days, 

 and oftener when swarming followed the 



shifting in less time than three days, the 

 swarming fever was clearly augmented in- 

 stead of being diminished, and this when all 

 the circumstances peculiar to the year were 

 most unfavorable to swarming. 



There is nothing in these experiments that 

 can furnish a decisive argument either for 

 or against the validity of the chief claim 

 that is made for Langdon's attachment, but 

 one point seems to be pretty well settled, 

 viz, : whether the attachment will serve to 

 allay the swarming fever should it once be 

 aroused ; and it remains to be seen whether 

 that impulse can be prevented by the appli- 

 cation of the attachment before it has its in- 

 ception. 



It is curious to note that whereas it is, we 

 may say, an universally accepted principle 

 that the crowding of bees creates the desire 

 to swarm and plenty of room tends to pre- 

 vent it, this non-swarming attachment, in 

 order to prevent swarming, actually, in its 

 operation, crowds together pitilessly all the 

 bees that are susceptible to the swarming 

 fever and gives a few of the young ones 

 which in any case would not be likely to feel 

 a desire to swarm, plenty of room. One can 

 hardly avoid the suspicion that both the 

 Langdon device and the Conser hive depend 

 for their success upon principles which the 

 bees are by no means uniformly careful to 

 observe. If a race of bees could be produced 

 that would never care to swarm until they 

 had queen cells capped nor while there was 

 room for eggs in the brood nest the solution 

 of the problem would be easy. 



FIVE - BANDED BEES. 



Having a desire to test the so-called tive- 

 banded bees, I introduced two queens of this 

 variety in the spring of lS!t4. As in the case 

 of so many other experiments, the unfavor- 

 able character of the season prevented any- 

 thing like a fair test of their abilities as hon 

 ey gatherers, yet it can be said that nothing 

 appeared to sliow that they were lacking in 

 this resi)ect. Though called " golden Ital- 

 ians," I would have pronounced them any- 

 thing but Italians judging from the disposi- 

 tion they exhibited. While they are not this 

 most irrascible of bees, they are yet very 

 nervous and quick to manifest a recognition 

 of intrusion, from which characteristic I 

 should have judged them to be largely of 

 Syrian blood. Eutthe most marked charac- 

 teristic exhibited by at least one of the two 

 colonies was an inclination to rob. If there 

 WHS any attack to be atteinpted on a colony 



