226 



AMERICAN BEE JOUKNAL 



April 12, 1900. 



colonies be made to do fine work. The colony into which 

 the others are to be put should be thoroly subdued, and 

 their sacs filled till all the fight is taken out of them, or 

 else they should be shaken from the combs among the 

 others, and all allowed to run in together. Managed in this 

 way small swarms, or small swarms and weak colonies, 

 may be run together for section-work. 



With the exception of about two seasons in which I had 

 much swarming in June (this was my first experience with 

 honey-flows and swarming at that time of year), I have very 

 largely increast by division, and kept down swarming to 

 the minimum. However, there are always a few swarms 

 that I have to contend with, some strays, some my own, 

 owing to some colonies becoming queenless and unknown, 

 and some by supersedure of the queens, and sometimes I 

 get behind and let the bees get the start of me. So it comes 

 about that I handle a few swarms almost every season. 



To hive an average swarm in a 10-frame hive means 

 very little super-work unless the flow be very good. To 

 hive in either an 8 or 10 frame hive on ready-made combs 

 also means that very little or no super work is done except 

 in very good flows. To hive on 5 or 6 frames with starters, 

 and put on a partlj'-workt super, or one with bait-combs, 

 will be better than the former plan. I practice hiving in a 

 contracted chamber of not to exceed six Langstroth frames 

 — sometimes I hive on about four combs ready built. I also 

 use a half of a divisible brood-chamber for this purpose. 

 As nearly as I know, I should advise to hive on starters and 

 only 6 to 8 frames, and put the supers over from the old hive 

 on the new, hiving on the old stand and putting the old on 

 a new stand. I would also shake out the bees from the old to 

 the new. 



Whatever plan is used, if you can not control swarming, 

 when swarms are hived be sure that the brood-chamber 

 room is contracted to correspond to the bees so that they 

 must work above if they do much at all. I should be in- 

 clined to put two swarms into one, or three into two, and 

 give whatever was my standard brood-chamber, for it is 

 very much better to have one strong colony store SO pounds 

 than to have two store only 25 pounds each. The SO pounds 

 stored by one colony will be better finisht than the SO 

 pounds by two colonies. 



My practice is to have every colonj' that works in sec- 

 tions very strong, and if I can not keep them from swarm- 

 ing I take away enough of their brood to discourage swarm- 

 ing. Have so many bees in the hive that in a reasonable 

 flow they will work two supers at once, and at the same 

 time occupy an 8 or 9 Langstroth-frame brood-nest. Such a 

 colony is a strong one, and here is about how it will work : 



If the flow be moderate, about two to three pounds a 

 day gain for such a colony, and lasts 30 days, I would ex- 

 pect about one super of 28 sections filled — say 25 pounds. 

 The same and the average daily gain about four pounds I 

 would expect two supers finisht. To increase the daily 

 gain, or to continue the flow longer, would mean a propor- 

 tionate increase in the surplus. According to my way of 

 looking at the problem, a colony should not be expected to 

 work sections unless it be strong enough to handle a 6 to 8 

 Langstroth-frame brood-chamber, and at least two 24-sec- 

 tion supers in a moderate flow. Such a colony will surely 

 go into the sections whether they use them or not, and they 

 will surely use them if there is a flow that would give a 

 crop. Such colonies will give more or less of a crop when 

 those allowed to swarm would give none. 



It discourages me to try to get a crop of honey from an 

 apiary allowed to swarm freely, for I surely consider a col- 

 ony that has swarmed not of sufficient numerical strength 

 to do nice section-work in an average season. It also dis- 

 courages me to try to tell anybody else how to succeed 

 and allow the bees to swarm. I think I will just say if you 

 will succeed in the production of comb honey, you must cur- 

 tail swarming, or else double up swarms and colonies till 

 you have proper masses of bees together. 



Take an apiary of 100 colonies, build them up as strong 

 as you can by the time white clover blooms, then if you can 

 take 50 or 75 of the best of them and run them for section 

 honey, and not let one of them swarm, you have my ideas 

 of proper strength of colonies. Do this, and in doing it 

 follow the methods I have been describing to keep off the 

 swarm ing-f ever, then if any get the start of you and swarm, 

 just hive them in a contracted brood-chamber, or take away 

 part of their brood and substitute frames filled with founda- 

 tion, and put them back into the old hive. 



If you want increase, make it by dividing your weak 

 colonies, and not ask them to put up surplus. If you can 

 do this I will guarantee you will get honey to sell when 

 your neighbors do not have any, and when your neighbors 



have moderate crops you will have good ones, and when 

 they have good ones you will have at least three to their 

 two. More than this, when others have to feed or lose their 

 bees you will have little or no feeding to do, and when 

 others have No. 1 honey you will have./awcj'. 



I have for nearly 10 years controlled swarming by un- 

 queening just about the beginning of the flow, and for a 

 locality having but one flow lasting four to six weeks, or 

 less, I know of no method that will give better results. 

 Now, my locality is somewhat changed, practically having 

 two flows, hence I am changing my method. Abundance 

 of room and ventilation before the flow ; flow started, con- 

 tract the brood-nest to normal, and give plenty of super- 

 room (all you can get them to use) with bait-combs, and 

 remember always, that if we can get a colony to working in 

 two or more supers before they get in the notion of swarming, 

 they will not swarm much if they are kept with plenty of 

 super-room. Larimer Co., Colo. 



Can a Good Queen be Reared in a Nucleus ? 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



WHEN I first began working with bees I learned that a 

 small number of bees were sufficient to start queen- 

 cells, if furnisht with proper brood, and that they 

 would therefrom secure a laying queen. I was delighted to 

 think with what rapidity an apiary could thus be built up. 

 But I soon learned that sometimes " things are not what 

 they seem." I reared some very poor queens ; in one case a 

 queen laid one egg and died ; in some other cases they did 

 not even lay as many as one e.^^ before death. 



From that I went to the other extreme, adopting the be- 

 lief that to get good queens the cells must be started in full 

 colonies and left there at least until sealing. I still held 

 that belief as late as a year ago, and in reply to a question, 

 I said : 



" If you put in a hive a frame of brood, another of 

 honey, and a pint of bees, they may protect themselves 

 against robbers, and they will be pretty sure to rear a 

 queen, but the chances are that the queen will be a very 

 poor affair. Don't think of having a queen reared any- 

 where but in a strong colony, at least until after the queen- 

 cell is sealed." (Page 199, March 30, 1899.) 



Commenting upon this, G. M. Doolittle said on page 

 371, "Without any precaution toward making the bees stay 

 on that frame of brood, they would all leave, and if so «o 

 queen would be reared at all — a poor affair or otherwise ; 

 but where bees are taken from an out-apiary and kept in a 

 nucleus-box without any queen for 24 hours, at the expira- 

 tion of which a quart of bees is turned loose on two frames 

 fixt as the questioner proposes, they will rear Just as good 

 queens as by any of the plans used which deprive the col- 

 ony of its queen while the cells are being built, as I have 

 proven time and time again ; for, while in the nucleus-box 

 they do ' so long ' for a queen that nearly all of them will 

 prepare royal jelly, and when they have access to brood 

 they will just 'flood' the young larva chosen for a queen 

 with it nearly, if not quite, equal to those being reared in a 

 colony preparing to cast a swarm. And a quart of bees on 

 the two frames will keep up the necessary heat to fully per- 

 fect those queens, where treated as I have given, fully as 

 good as will a strong colony whose queen has been taken 

 from them that they may rear queens." 



I studied over that paragraph very carefully. If I un- 

 derstood it correctly, it plainly taught that a quart was just 

 as good as a strong colony of queenless bees to rear queen- 

 cells and queens from start to finish. If that was true, I 

 .was in error to teach the reverse. Mr. Doolittle was one of 

 the leading queen-breeders of the world, so had had manj' 

 times the opportunity that I had had to observe the matter, 

 as I was not a queen-breeder, only a honey-producer. But 

 the bare possibility that Mr. Doolittle might be mistaken 

 was still left in my mind, and I thought there was no great 

 need to change my opinion in haste, as my error, if error it 

 was, was on the side of safety. I could afford to wait until 

 the opportunity came either from my own experience or the 

 testimony of others to help settle me on one side or the 

 other. 



Such opportunity has now come. In reply to the ques- 

 tion, "When dividing bees is it best to rear queens for 

 them, or let the queenless part of the division rear a queen 

 for themselves ?" Mr. Doolittle replies (Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture, page 175) : 



"I consider any plan of division, which compels the 

 queenless part to rear their own queen, as faulty. Because, 

 in the first place, good queens are reared only in a colony 



