THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



101 



Explanatory.— The figures before the 

 names indicate the nuinber of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer bad in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and sprinjr, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark O indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named: 

 6 north of the centre ; 9 south ; 0+ east ; 

 ♦O west; and this 6 northeast; ^ northwest; 

 o» southeast; and 9 southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the AmerlcaQ Bee Joumak 



Working Against Nature. 



DR. G. L. TINKER. 



In his reply to my article on page 

 777 of the Bee Journal for 1S84, Mr. 

 W. Z. Hutchinson, after stating that 

 he had tried the Heddon plan of con- 

 trolling after-swarms, says : " There 

 has been no robbing nor any 'dis- 

 ease.'" Yet Mr. Frank D. Mitchell, 

 in practicing the same plan, had 

 severe robbing to follow, and disaster 

 was averted only by prompt attention. 

 Mr. Mitchell said notliing about dis- 

 ease occurring, nor did I ; neither did 

 I think that any reader of the Bee 

 Journal would so construe it. 



As to the " blind instincts of na- 

 ture "and Mr. Heddon's "reason;" 

 He may have asserted the latter and 

 disregarded the former many times 

 when a better understanding would 

 have led to different practice. No 

 man is so perfect that his reason may 

 be said to be " superior " to instinct 

 in directing the course of events in 

 nature. Perfect knowledge is not one 

 of our attributes, given or acquired, 

 while nature makes few mistakes. 

 Take away the instinct of the bees, 

 and our wise men would make a sorry 

 plight in attempting to order a better 

 system than that of nature. And 

 right here, I shall be glad to have it 

 remembered, that the (irst grand 

 mistake would probably be to order 

 that the " silly " bees should " touch 

 not, taste not, handle not " that 

 deadly thing— pollen— in winter con- 

 finement ! 



My idea of working against nature 

 is where the bee-master, ill-directed 

 by reason, institutes methods and 

 practices oif less profit than a course 

 prompted by the instinct of the bees. 

 The controlling of the after-swarming 

 of a colony, on the Heddon plan, that 

 has cast an early prime swarm, will 

 result in a failure to get as much sur- 

 plus as by a method of management 

 by which the old colony is not de- 

 prived of so many bees as to render 

 It unable to cast a second swarm or to 

 store any surplus, unless the season 

 for surplus is a protracted one. In 

 from -5 to 8 days after a first swarm 

 issues, the old colony (if not allowed 

 to swarm again) will ordinarily begin 

 work in the sections and store" nearly 

 as much surplus as the swarm. Now, 



if Mr. Hutchinson will give me a suf- 

 ficient reason why the old colony 

 should not be allowed to produce sur- 

 plus, and the young bees profitably 

 employed, then I may be convinced 

 that it may be profitable to work 

 against nature in the manner advised. 



I am aware that if nearly all of the 

 bees be taken from the old colony and 

 given to the new one, that the latter 

 will store a larger amount of surplus, 

 but I am not aware that it would 

 store more than both the new one and 

 the old one if divided by swarming 

 only once in a natural manner. Mr. 

 Heddon has truly stated (nor did I 

 misunderstand him as Mr. Hutchin- 

 son thinks) " that the largest yields 

 on record have come from tlie colonies 

 which cast not only one, but two or 

 three swarms." Mr. Heddon states 

 what has been often recorded in the 

 Bee Journal, of unprecedented 

 yields of honey in which after-swarms 

 have taken a part. There is no doubt 

 but that a colony which swarms, if 

 properly managed, will produce more 

 surplus than one which does not 

 swarm ; but the recorded facts show 

 the old colony to be no mean factor in 

 the production of the large yields, 

 whether it casts a second swarm or 

 not. This Mr. Hutchinson appar- 

 ently denies. 



while the above represents my 

 views as to all early swarming, I will 

 not say that I would not favor Mr. 

 Heddon's plan of controlling after- 

 swarming, where prime swarms issue 

 within 10 to 1.5 days of the close of 

 the honey harvest. With these late 

 swarms contracted on about six 

 brood-frames with a queen-excluder, 

 the sections on the old colony may be 

 transferred to the new one at once, 

 and as many bees taken as the old 

 colony can safely spare. They may 

 be shaken from the brood-combs in 

 front of the new colony, or taken by 

 the slower process of moving the old 

 colony about the new one, covering 

 it with a cloth, etc., and by this man- 

 agement a larger surplus may be ob- 

 tained. But this contracting of the 

 brood-nest is not one of Mr. Heddon's 

 methods, and without it I can see no 

 advantage in his plan whatever, un- 

 less it may be to save a little labor, 

 which is offset by obtaining a small 

 amount of surplus. 



Where there is so much difficulty in 

 opening hives tlie brood-frames of 

 which are bound together by new 

 combs built on their tops and between 

 them, the Heddon plan might be ad- 

 vised as a choice of evils, especially 

 with ugly bees ; but in instances 

 where the combs may be readily 

 lifted from the hives, I find that the 

 time taken to go through them after 

 queen-cells about the sixth day after 

 a prime swarm issues, is not great. 

 Of course it is many times not nec- 

 essary, as every bee-keeper will be 

 thoughtful enough to give to colonies, 

 a few days after they cast a prime 

 swarm, a laying queen", a virgin queen, 

 or a' queen-cell about to hatch, if he 

 has them and does not care to save 

 tlie queen-cells of the colony to be 

 operated on ; but witli the exception 

 of the layingqueen, these latter plans 

 are not always proof against after- 



swarms. Another objection to the 

 Heddon plan is with highly prolific 

 queens, like the Cyprians, the Syrians, 

 the Svrio -Italians or Albinos. 



BEST MANAGEMENT FOR SURPLUS. 



If we build up colonies of these 

 bees on ten or more brood-combs to 

 their fullest capacity by the time of 

 the honey-flow, and then hive all 

 swarms on from 6 to 7 brood-frames, 

 as is advisable, and prevent after- 

 swarming on the Heddon plan, we 

 shall get too many bees in the new 

 colonies. I divide up these very 

 large colonies as nearly even as pos- 

 sible, which I am able to do by plac- 

 ing the new colony on the old stand 

 and removing the old one to a new 

 location. By the time the most of the 

 young bees have hatched, both colo- 

 nies will be of about the same 

 strength and produce about the same 

 amount of comb honey. I also take 

 two or more brood-combs from the 

 old colony. The swarms are hived on 

 6 or 7 frames half filled with founda- 

 tion, or on as many frames of empty 

 comb. Soon after, the combs taken 

 from the old colony are given to them, 

 and as many frames taken from the 

 new one ; or, if the queen's wing is not 

 clipped, and the swarm is allowed to 

 cluster, I place the combs in the hive 

 at once, put on the sections and then 

 hive the swarm. The combs taken 

 from the old colony are always placed 

 at the outside of the brood-chamber, 

 and the frames with foundation^ in 

 the centre. 



After hiving a swarm on so few 

 combs, the hive must be well venti- 

 lated or they will desert it. As I put 

 on the sections at once in all cases, 

 desertion is prevented by giving ven- 

 tilation through the sections at the 

 top without letting out the bees. 

 After two days these openings are 

 closed. I also advise the use of a 

 queen-excluder on all colonies, and 

 find that, if properly made, they do not 

 hinder the storing of surplus in sec- 

 tions or frames; but if fewer brood- 

 combs than six be given, the bees will 

 store much pollen in the sections. 



CONTROLLING BROOD-REARING. 



This I regard as essential to the best 

 results. When it is seen that the 

 eggs deposited will not produce ma- 

 ture bees until too late to be of ser- 

 vice in storing surplus, then both old 

 colonies and iiew ones should be con- 

 tracted on a few brood-combs, and 

 queen-excluders should be placed be- 

 neath the sections, and the work of 

 the queen narrowed down to the 

 lowest possible limits. Then, as soon 

 as the season of surplus closes, all 

 surplus is to be removed, when the 

 bees, finding themselves short of 

 stores, breed but little. Colonies 

 having highly prolific queens, which I 

 have managed on this plan, have been 

 found to be quite small in the fall, 

 and where increase is not desirable, it 

 would be easy to unite them ; and al- 

 though a little more troublesome then, 

 than during a honey-flow, it comes at 

 a time when robbing ani other dis- 

 turbance will not interfere with the 

 work of the bees as when profitably 

 storing surplus. So much for Mr. 



