190« 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



445 



SWARM CONTROL. 



I operate a few hives for the love of it, and 

 for comb honey. The honey surplus is from 

 alfalfa and sweet clover. The season ex- 

 tends from the middle of June to the middle 

 of October, being most important from July 

 1 up to and perhaps a little beyond Sept. 1. 



What results might I look for from the 

 following method? 



1. Put full body hive over the old hive and 

 brood-nest with excluder between. When 

 the honey-flow is well started shake all bees 

 into the upper part; set the old brood-nest to 

 one side, and, by changing back and forth, 

 incorporate its bees with those in the new 

 body. I do not wish for increase. Would 

 this method, practiced, say about June 20 to 

 July 1. be likely to stave off any further 

 swarming? 



2. How would it work to proceed as above, 

 except to put the old brood-nest, after shak- 

 ing, on top of the new, and its superimposed 

 section-frames, using a Porter bee-escape be- 

 tween the old brood-nest and the topmost 

 section? Leave this on until the young bees 

 had hatched and passed down to become a 

 part of the colony below? 



3. What results would likely come from 

 the following method? Place the old queen 

 with proper frames in the upper hive; place 

 a queen-excluder between the two; stop the 

 old entrance, and make a new one between 

 the two hive bodies. Place over the queen- 

 excluder a suitable, heavy, flat, close-fitting 

 cloth, except a small section cut out at the 

 rear of the cloth, 1| inches square, at which 

 point the queen-excluder should permit of 

 the bees freely passing to the upper body 

 and to the exit from that body to the out- 

 side. Would the bees thus gradually aban- 

 don the lower hive, and become part of the 

 colony working from the new entrance and 

 storing in the sections, which have, of course, 

 been superimposed? Would it work to use 

 the Porter bee-escape between the lower and 

 the upper body, and so slowly empty the 

 lower body? 



I have two box hives. Rather than trans- 

 pose the bees to frame hives I thought of 

 forming nuclei in a full-size frame hive, 

 placing the hive between the two box hives, 

 and, about the time they are threatening to 

 swarm, leave the box hives and remove to 

 another place, thus throwing the field force 

 of both these queens to the nucleus. 



I can repeat this, either in the same way 

 or to bring strength in bees to where it may 

 be most valuable — perhaps twice more before 

 the flow is ended. 



May not these queens so kept at work, and 



utilizing all their field force, be made quite 

 as effective in producing honey as if I trans- 

 ferred, and the breeding-space of the box 

 hives, which it costs nothing to preserve, is 

 absolutely lost? 



There is a plan, originated, I believe, by a 

 Mr. Dudley, of this State, by which, in a sit- 

 uation as described in 3 above, he uses a tin 

 tube on the outside, up which the bees from 

 the lower body pass to the entrance between 

 the two hives, this being their only egress in- 

 side or out. Then bees do not find their way 

 back, but at once take up work at the upper 

 entrance, and in behalf of the upper colony. 

 Why is this cumbrous method any better 

 than the use of the Porter bee-escape placed 

 inside, allowing the lower hive to empty 

 slowly into the upper with no possible re- 

 turn? I should very much like to hear Dr. 

 Miller's comments on these plans. 



Could I introduce a new queen by using 

 her in plan 3, placed on one or two frames of 

 young bees from the lower brood-nest in- 

 stead of the old queen, keeping the latter be- 

 low until 1 have secured the most of the 

 strength from that brood-nest and am ready 

 to get rid of the old queen? 



Philip B. Stewart. 



Colorado Springs, Col. 



[The various plans of swarm control you 

 propose have all been tried. There are two 

 objections. First, they call for too much 

 work; second, they do not always succeed, 

 and are, therefore, risky. I would suggest 

 that you follow Dr. Miller's book, "Forty 

 Years Among the Bees," very closely. The 

 Dudley tube is an adaptation of Langdon's 

 device on the entrance, and I imagine it will 

 not last long. 



My experience with comb honey leads me 

 to say that certain points are very important, 

 and need to be emphasized. 



1. Good shade; 2. Plenty of air current 

 during hot weather; 3. A space below the 

 frames for the bees to cluster; 4. As few 

 "contraptions" in the hive and supers as 

 possible; 5 Young queens. 



Let the box hives swarm once. Fifteen 

 days afterward, drive all the bees out and 

 add them to the swarm, killing all the virgin 

 queens. What is left is empty comb, fit 

 onlv for the wax-extractor. 



The nearer you make a comb-honey hive 

 like an extracted, the better it will work. 

 There is no- royal road to comb-honey pro- 

 duction, and plans have to be modified to 

 suit seasons and localities — W. K. M.] 



CAN UNFINISHED SECTIONS BE USED FOR 

 EARLY SPRING FEEDING? 



I was intending to ask you the advisability 

 of putting in unfinished sections early for 

 feed; but I see in the Jan. 15th Gleanings, 

 p. 83, its disadvantages as well as advan- 

 tages. I should like to know if I should put 

 a few in each hive early in April, even be- 

 fore any pollen is to be found, if the bees 

 would take the hint and use it for feed. To 

 prevent the cooling of the hives I think there 

 would be room to put back the cushions on 



