Vol. vm. 



SEPTEMBER, J 898. 



No. 9. 



Cutting Quecti-Cells to Prevent 

 Swarming. 



Written for the American Bee-Keeper. 



BY G. M. HOOLITTLE. 



Tjp\ ICKING up a paper lately I saw 

 YJl is these words from quite a promi- 

 '^ ^ '' nent writer on apiculture: "Cut- 

 ting queen-cells cannot always be re- 

 lied on to prevent swarming, but the 

 practice has a tendency to delay it, and 

 in some cases entirely prevent it." 



T wish to say a few words in this 

 matter of cutting queen-cells. I will 

 take the above as a sort of text and 

 widen out a little so that the reader 

 can see something regarding what 

 Doolittle does believe in along the line 

 of cutting cells. Undoubtedly the words 

 quoted were said in alluding to the 

 stopping of prime swarms, by the cut- 

 ting-of-cells plan, so often given and 

 tried by those who have not had years 

 of experience in practical apiculture. 

 Such being the case, I think the writer 

 quite correct in his statement, and 

 would add to it, that I believe inuch 

 honey is lost in trying to hinder prime 

 swarms through the cutting of cells, 

 which might have been secured had 

 the bees been allowed to swarm when 

 they were ready to do so, instead of 

 throwing them out of a normal con- 

 dition by cutting cells, and then having 

 them swarm at ast under conditions 

 not as favorable, for a crop of surplus 



honey as would have been had they 

 been let alone. By the cutting of cells 

 and any manipulation which is not 

 sure and permanent, the swarming fe- 

 ver is generally at its height right in 

 the heaviest flow of honey, and when 

 thus, very little surplus will be ob- 

 tained, while if the bees were allowed 

 their way, and after-swarms prevented, 

 the whole apiary would settle down to 

 business .iust when the flow of honey 

 was at its best, and thus a fine crop of 

 honey is secured. But it is barely pos- 

 sible that the writer alluded to after- 

 swarms when he said that "cutting of 

 queen-cells cannot always be relied on 

 to prevent swarming," for I am well 

 aware that the way queen-cells are 

 generally cut, has not only a "tendency 

 to delay" after-swarms, but it has also 

 a tendency to increase the number 

 which issue. 



Nature gives many more in number 

 of after-swarms than of all other 

 swarms put together, and as these 

 swarms are not desired by many, any 

 plan which will entirely prevent them, 

 will bear repeating often, and this 

 brings me up to what I wished more 

 especially to say: The usual plan for 

 cutting queen-cells to pievent after- 

 swarming, is to wait six days after the 

 first prime swarm issues, when the 

 hive is to be opened and all of the 

 queen-cells excepting one, cut off, 



