150 



TffE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



when it is claimed no more swarms will 

 issue. After trying this plan for sev- 

 eral years I found it worked just ex- 

 actly as a bee-keeper told me a short 

 time ago it worked with him. He said 

 he had usually hived these after- 

 swarms in boxes about the parent col- 

 ony till the old colony stopped swarm- 

 ing, when he dumped all together in 

 the old hive, letting the young queens 

 fight it out, when they would go on 

 and work well; and if a suitable time 

 in the honey harvest when this was 

 done, such a colony would do good 

 business, giving a surplus of honey. 

 While he was thus doing, another bee- 

 keeper came along and told him that, 

 if he would cut all the queen-cells but 

 one, on the sixth day, he would have 

 no more trouble hiving after-swarms 

 in boxes about the parent colony. Of- 

 fering to show him how, they opened a 

 hive which had swarmed six days be- 

 fore, and bee-keeper No. 2 cut all the 

 cells but one. At the usual time no 

 swarm issued and bee-keeper No. 1 

 thought he had learned something of 

 value: but when the sixteenth, seven- 

 teenth and eighteenth days arrived af- 

 ter the issue of the prime swarm, he 

 found he had more swarms from hives 

 thus treated than from those not 

 touched at all. He said that the bees 

 built queen-cells over the larvae still 

 left in the hive, that was of an age at 

 which it could be converted into a 

 queen; destroyed the cell or queen af- 

 ter she had hatched, which was left in 

 cuttting cells; and as the bees had be- 

 come strong in numbers before the 

 queens matured from the newly built 

 cells, the bees would swarm until the 

 old hive was so depopulated that it 

 would not build up for winter unless 

 helped by the apiarist. 



I have given the readers of The 

 American Bee-Keeper what this bee- 

 keeper told me, as it so nearly de- 

 scribed what I have found to be a fact 

 when using the plan, that words of 

 mine could add nothing to it. I have 



September 



often wondered how long it would take 

 to teach the apiarists of the United 

 States that such cutting of cells was a 

 fallacy, and worse than a failure. But 

 there is a way of cutting queen-cells so 

 as to entirely prevent after-swarms, 

 which has stood the test of years with 

 me. I will tell the readers so they can 

 enjoy it with me. Wait eight days af- 

 ter the first or prime swarm issues 

 from any hive, then cut all the queen 

 cells giving a ripe one from your best 

 colony, and you have a sure thing of it, 

 as, in this case, all of the larvae have 

 passed the age of being converted into 

 queens. But the way I prefer, and the 

 one I practice is this: On the evening 

 of the eighth day, just before going to 

 bed, (the maximum outside noise being 

 hushed in the outside world at this 

 time), I listen a moment with my ear 

 at the side of the hive which cast a 

 prime swarm that long ago, and if the 

 young queen has hatched, and the bees 

 have concluded to send out an after- 

 swarm, I hear the piping of the young 

 queen, which always precedes the issue 

 of an after-swarm. If I hear this pip- 

 ing, I open the hive early the next 

 morning and cut off every queen cell, 

 shaking off the bees from each frame 

 in front of the entrance, so that no 

 cells can by any possibility be missed. 

 There is now no guess work or hope-so 

 about it, but a sure thing, as one queen 

 has her liberty and you take away all 

 the rest. In all ways where a sealed 

 queen cell is left, there is a possibility 

 that this cell may not hatch, in which 

 case the colony will be queenless; but 

 by this plan we know that there is a 

 young queen present, for we heard iier 

 say so the night previous, if no piping 

 is heard when we listen, then listen 

 the next night, and so on to the 

 night of the sixteenth day; and if no 

 piping is heard then, we may know 

 that the bees have concluded not to 

 send out any after-swarm. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



