124 



THE BEE KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



I have described, that will hatch in a day or 

 two. The cell is put between the top bars 

 of the hive directly over the cluster of bees, 

 because I can examine it by simply raising 

 the hive cover, and it will hatch just as well 

 here as in the comb below. Let me say here 

 that if the queen cells are not cut out of the 

 combs at all, but the nearly mature cell used 

 just as described, not one colony in ten will 

 destroy the introduced cell, but I wish to 

 make sure, not only that the colony will not 

 swarm again, but that the introduced cell 

 furnishes the queen : for this, in my opinion, 

 is the natural and best method of improving 

 the bees, within the reach of man. It is the 

 law of the survival of the fittest to use the 

 highest type of each kind for parentage ; 

 and the colony that, under the same condi- 

 tions, builds up and casts the earliest swarm 

 has proved its claim to first rank. 



The plan outlined will be the one followed 

 in the future to improve my bees. I will 

 keep introducing a little fresh Italian or oth- 

 er desirable blood each year, and will keep 

 some black stock in the yard, but will not 

 strive for five-banded, three-banded, gold- 

 ens, or any other arbritrary standard but 

 will crown those tha ' excel in good works. 



There is another way of using some of the 

 brood from the medium early swarms. 

 With all our care, there will always be some 

 backward colonies at swarming time. In- 

 deed, this seems necessary in all of nature's 

 works. I look upon the universe as a 

 growth ; always unfolding towards a higher 

 order. I regard creation as going on as 

 truly to-day as in any former time, and if in 

 bees and other things there were no differ- 

 ence, and all colonies were just alike there 

 would be no starting point from which su- 

 periority could be detected and utilized, 

 so we want to build up these backward 

 colonies by working out inferior blood 

 and substituting superior, and we take the 

 brood from our more vigorous colonies, re- 

 move from the weak colonies th^ combs that 

 have no brood and fill up the space with sur- 

 plus brood. This not only improves the 

 strain of bees but insures reasonably early 

 swarms. Please remember that by this 

 method we are not trying to suppress swarm- 

 ing : we are to accept the fact that swarming 

 is implanted by nature and that the true 

 ways of nature are the voice of God which 

 no wise person will resist or try to injure 

 when they hear and understand it. I have 

 tried many plans to prevent swarming but 



without profitable results, and I now believe 

 I can get the best results, not by preventing 

 but by encouraging swarming and then 

 properly utilizing it to accomplish certain 

 aims. I have learned to my cost that there 

 are other vital interests to consider besides 

 the current year's sur'2}lus, and one of the 

 greatest of these interests is the condi- 

 tion of our colonies for future work. What 

 does it profit a person that relies on honey 

 production for a living to gain a big crop 

 and then lose all his bees ? The parent col- 

 onies treated as I have described will in the 

 fall, if there is a fair yield of nectar, and 

 without which all methods are vain, be 

 heavy with stores and tilled to overflowing 

 with young bees. Withotit which successful 

 wintering is impossible. This method en- 

 ables us, after we have got as many colonies 

 as we wish, to control increase, for we are to 

 unite the prime swarms with the parent col- 

 onies again in the early fall. This I do by 

 setting the prime swarm on top of the pa- 

 rent colony with a queen excluding honey 

 board between them, having first removed 

 the old queen. If the new swarm is very 

 populous I will set the two together without 

 the honey board and winter them in the two 

 story hive ; in fact this may be the best in 

 all cases where the colonies are very strong 

 in bees. I have learned, however, from 

 actual experience, that it does not improve 

 the parent colony to add the bees from the 

 other colony to it, especially if done late, 

 and if I could satisfy my conscience I would 

 kill or abandon to its fate the new swarm 

 after the brood was hatched and utilized, us- 

 ing the combs and honey in the mcst desirable 

 way for wax or for future use ; but I cannot 

 reconcile my?elf to this cruel work. I know 

 it is no worse than to raise and kill our do- 

 mestic and wild animals for food, but I be- 

 lieve that the person that can enjoy the milk 

 from his gentle pet cow during her useful 

 life and then with bloody hands take her life 

 and enjoy the meat, can do so only because 

 he is yet a savage. Believing as I do that 

 all forms of life are related I feel like obey- 

 ing the command, "thou shalt not kill." I 

 feel thus not so much from fear of harming 

 the inferior animals as from fear of blunting 

 my own better nature. 



In my next article I will tell what I have 

 learned about swarms and hiving them. 



FoKESTviLLE, Minn. 



April i'2, mm. 



