336 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



while across the Atlantic, extracted honey sells 

 for about the same price as comb honey, if it sells 

 at all. So, of course, extracted-honey produc- 

 tion is the rule. You would be astonished if you 

 could read the many testimonials I have received 

 to the great advantages of the large hives and 

 honey-extractor, from bee-keepers of the Old 

 World. 



3. The climate of Central Europe has none of 

 the extremes of heat and cold of our United 

 States. Swarming is for that reason much more 

 readily prevented. Neither do they have the ex- 

 cesses of swarming that I have seen here, in nat- 

 ural circumstances, for that same reason, even 

 with hives of reduced size. 



I do not believe that it is desirable to produce 

 races without propensity for swarming. In a 

 natural condition this is the only method by 

 which nature can propagate the race. The aim 

 of our producers should be to place their bees in 

 the conditions that will make life most endurable 

 to the bees of the hives, and they will thus have 

 the minimum of swarms. But with small hives 

 and the production of comb honey in small sec- 

 tions, there is sure to be a large percentage of 

 swarming. 



It has lately been said by several writers that 

 the difference between extracted honey and comb 

 honey in number of pounds produced has former- 

 ly been overestimated. They forget that they 

 used to produce comb honey with but very nar- 

 now strips of foundation, or none at all, while 

 nowadays nearly every one uses full sheets. 

 This is bound to make a difference in results. 

 But the more foundation you use, the nearer you 

 get to the conditions that make extracted honey 

 profitable. 



Hamilton, 111. 



HOW TO HIVE A SWARM AUTO- 

 MATICALLY. 



BY CHAS. E. ADAMS. 



Last sprine, about the middle of May, one of 

 my colonies prepared to swarm. It was not 

 coi^venient for me to be at home to attend to it, 

 so my wits were set to work to devise a way to 

 make the bees hive themselves. First I clipped 

 both wings of the queen off quite short so that 

 s'ne could only crawl. Next I set the hive con- 

 taining the colony on a stand about 18 inches 

 high. Then I got an empty hire with frames of 

 foui dation and set the same beside the old hive 

 as closely as possible, but directly on the ground, 

 and arranged a slanting board to make it very 

 easy for the queen to crawl up into the empty 

 hive. Then I went away to hiy work, with 

 bright hopes for the success of the plan, and I 

 was not disappointed; for on arriving home the 

 following night I found this queen and her com- 

 munity safely hived. 



Now, if this method can be successfully work- 

 ed in a fair percentage of trials it suggests some 

 desirable possibilities; for instance, if it were de- 

 seed ;j get more bees with the swarm the new 

 hive could be raised to a level with the old at 

 noonrime, when many bees were afield, and the 

 old hive be turned around or taken away. In 



my case the old colony was taken to a new 

 stand, and the new swarm put in its place. I got 

 a yield of honey from both colonies. 



STOPPING ROBBING BY TURNING THE HIVE OF 

 ROBBERS AROUND. 



A case of robbing was stopped by a plan I have 

 never seen mentioned, although I got the idea 

 from the plan given in Gleanings, of changing 

 places of the robbers with the robbed. This 

 plan seemed to me to be a little too much, fear- 

 ing it might result in both colonies becoming 

 robbers, so I did what I could to protect the 

 robbed colony and then turned the hive of the 

 robbers completely around. In a very short 

 time all was peaceful again. 



In connection with this robber case an odd in- 

 cident took place. Of course the bees of the 

 robber colony were confused by having the en- 

 trance turned about, so I was watching to see 

 how they behaved. There was an old box 

 standing on end within a few inches of the en- 

 trance to the hive in its reversed position — the 

 box containing rags that had been U8«d for win- 

 ter packing. There was quite a wide crack in 

 the box next to the hive, and I noticed that bees 

 would go in at this crack and run out again. I 

 could not tell where they came from, as I could 

 not trace them to any hive, but concluded that 

 the robbers were having their turn at being rob- 

 bed. The nearest I can come to describing the 

 actions of these bees is to say that they danced 

 in and out of the box like a lot of delighted chil- 

 dren. The next day a little swarm of beea very 

 accommodatingly alighted on a small elm in the 

 yard near this box, and the mystery was explain- 

 ed. 



Exeter, N. H. 



[These experiments are interesting as well as 

 valuable. It would be quite feasible to hive a 

 swarm on the plan here described; and the beauty 

 of it is, it requires no special machinery, tools, 

 and other appliances. 



The scheme of thwarting robbers is also good; 

 but perhaps some of the readers do not know how 

 to go about it to determine iv/iic/i colony or col- 

 onies are doing the robbing. Take a little com- 

 mon white flour and spray it on the bees that are 

 coming out of the robbed hive; then quickly 

 rush around to the other hives in the yard and 

 see where the floured bees are going in. The 

 plan will work a little better if some one will 

 sprinkle the flour at the entrance of the robbed 

 colony while another person is taking a quick 

 gla.'ce at the entrances of n/l the hives. Asa 

 general thing, one colony, if robbing has just 

 started, will be responsible for all the mischief. 

 If robbing once gits ivell under nvay, and the 

 colony is overpowered, there will in all probabil- 

 ity be more than one colony involved in the 

 stealing business. Sometimes the whole apiary 

 will get into a bad way. See answer to E. D. 

 Townsend in this issue. — Ed.] 



Our Caucasians are a little ahead in brood. 

 Indeed, our black races did not seem to neglect 

 their brood when chilly or bad weather comes on, 

 like the Italians. 



