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36th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JULY 9, 1896. 



No. 28. 



The PreventioH of Swarming — Questions. 



[We received the following letter from Dr. Miller, in 

 which he asks " The Dadants " some questions. Upon its re- 

 ceipt, we forwarded the letter, and, in due time, there came 

 back with it a reply from both Mr. Chas. Dadant and his son, 

 C. P. The Doctor's letter and the two answers are as fol- 

 lows : — Ed.] 



Messrs. Dadant & Son : — You have done what you could 

 to embitter my life by keeping bees that would not swarm, or 

 by keeping hives from which bees would not swarm. At any 

 rate, you report only from three to five colonies out of a hun- 

 dred as swarming, and you attribute it chiefly to the large 

 amount of room you give your colonies. This year I gave to 

 most of my colonies 16 Langstroth combs, making, I think, 

 about one-third more capacity than you give to your colonies. 

 Most of them were reduced to one story with eight frames at 

 the time of putting on supers, but before being so reduced a 

 number of them made ready for swarming, and of those left 

 on 16 frames the large majority decided to swarm. 



It might be said that being in two stories the bees did not 

 work in both, but that is a mistake, there was brood in both 

 stories, and the queen went freely from one story to another. 

 Now, why do my bees deport themselves so differently from 

 yours? Is it " locality," or is there something in the shape of 

 the hive ? Is it some witchcraft you brought over from 

 France ? If the latter, will you teach me the secret if I come 

 down to your place ? Enviously yours, 



C. C. Miller. 



CHAS. DADANT'S ANSWER TO DR. MILLER. 



There is nothing in discordance with what we hold to be 

 the habits of the bees, in the above facts as described by Dr. 

 Miller. The frames of our large hives have about 100,001 ) 

 cells; those of the S-frame Langstroth about 60,000, or two 

 together about 120,000, but as soon as the crop begins we 

 add one super containing about 50,000 cells, and when this 

 is a little over half full we add a second one, if the season is 

 favorable, thus raising the capacity of the hive to 200,000 



cells. 



The difference in the quantity of swarms is not due only to 

 those successive enlargements of the hive. A colony, in a 

 state of nature, always builds its combs from the top down, 

 and continues them downward without interruption, without 

 leaving any space open. The queen may thus run over them 

 without obstacles or irregularities. It is not thus with a 

 double-story hive, and for that reason the queen always hesi- 



tates more or less either to go up into the upper tier or down 

 again in the lower. The upper combs are separated from the 

 lower, by the top-bar of the lower combs, the empty space, 

 and the bottom-bar of the upper combs. This space compels 

 her to hunt around in the dark, in a way which is not accord- 

 ing to her instinct. 



In a large, single-story hive the case is different. She 

 finds in the brood-chamber the entire space that she needs. 



In our apiary of about 80 colonies, here at home, we have 

 had but two swarms this season. We should gladly welcome 

 Dr. Miller, and show him how our bees behave with' our 

 methods. 



In a criticism on page 391, Mr. Doolittle, speaking of 

 large hives, writes that it is useless to have hives full of brood 

 and bees in the month of March, for it would be as if one hoed 

 the potatoes before they were up. We do not know where Mr. 

 Doolittle has seen hives full of brood and bees in March, prob- 

 ably not in our latitude, which is about the same as his. 



It is just the other way. In either large or small hives, 

 one usually does not get brood and bees as early as one would 

 wish. Every season we try to induce our bees to breed early, 

 by giving them flour before the pollen comes. 



I would add that I should be very glad to find a way to 

 get still stronger colonies than we usually have in April, for 

 there is a great deal of fruit-bloom every year, and at that 

 time there are but few colonies, even in large hives, that are 

 sufficiently strong to harvest more than is necessary to breed 

 from. Chas. Dadant. 



C. p. DADANT'S ANSWER. 



Dr. Miller is either trying to poke fun at us, or he is want- 

 ing to bring us out with our hobbies. I rather think the lat- 

 ter is the case. Although Dr. M.'s motto is "I don't know," 

 we suspect him of knowing a great deal more than he lets on, 

 and we think that he is not nearly so ignorant as he would let 

 us believe. Well, Doctor, we will take you as if in dead earn- 

 est, and will " talk back." 



Right here, in the home apiary, we have about 80 colo- 

 nies just now. We have had two swarms, and think we have 

 lost another. Mr. Dadant, senior, has had the task of watch- 

 ing the bees, and he seems to think that he is wasting his 

 time. 



Here are two colonies side by side, both apparently very 

 strong. We opened their hives about a week ago, and found 

 one of them with about five extracting-fraines full of honey, 

 the center ones partly sealed, but the other nine frames nearly 

 dry. The supers are of the American size, and hold 14 half- 

 frames. The colony is evidently e-tpecting to fill the entire 

 width by and by, but their restricting themselves to a certain 

 number of combs shows that they do not feel crowded, and 

 are comfortable. There are no idle bees on the outside. 



The other hive has a large cluster hanging on the outside 



