148 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



REPLIES by Prominent Apiarists. 



Increasing Number of Colonies. 



Query, No. 32 — What is the tiest way tn 

 increase 17 colonies of bees to ."iO colonies. 

 and also obtain a little surplus comb honey, 

 providing? the season is n ^ood one V— Dela- 

 ware City, Del. 



AV. Z. Hutchinson says: "Put 

 boxes on all the hives. When a col- 

 ony swarms, transfer the boxes to the 

 swarm. Allow the old colony to cast 

 after-swarms, but give no boxes to 

 them nor to old colonies after they 

 have swarmed," 



Dr. C. C. Milleb answers thus: 

 " Generally every man's own way is 

 his best way. One way is to form 

 nuclei as early as bees will stand it, 

 and have the earliest ones strong 

 enough to yield some surplus." 



G. M. DooLiTTLE replies as fol- 

 lows : " By natural swarming, hiving 

 the first and second swarms, and by 

 getting the 'little surplus 'from the 

 first or prime swarms." 



Prof. A. J. Cook remarks thus : 

 " I think by forming nuclei to secure 

 queens, and then building up into 

 strong colonies by adding brood. We 

 cannot expect to get much comb 

 honey ui average years with such 

 increase." 



James Heddon answers as follows: 

 " I prefer natural increase to any 

 other, though I prefer none at all. If 

 you fear they will not reach the de- 

 sired number of colonies by natural 

 swarming, you can follow any of the 

 other plans of increase as laid down 

 in the bee-books and bee-papers. 

 Choose the one which you think best 

 fitted to your special environments." 



G. W. Dejiareb advises the fol- 

 lowing: "Rear some queens and 

 have them ready when the swarming 

 time comes. Let every colony swarm, 

 that will swarm in time, and make up 

 the deficit with swarms made by 

 division, giving each a laying queen. 

 Prevent after-swarms by destroying 

 the queen-cells that caused the 

 swarms, and give the parent colony a 

 virgin queen from one to five days 

 old." 



J. E. I'OND, -Ii:., says: "This 

 question is a little vague and indefi- 

 nite. We are not told whether tlie 

 question of fancied economy is to be 

 taken into consideration or not. I 

 refer by this to tlie matter of rearing 

 or purchasing queens. I deem it 

 economy to buy them, and con- 

 sider that the best way to increase 

 would be to break up 2 or 3 of the 

 colonies best supplied with brood, into 

 nuclei ; furnish them with laying 

 queens and build them up, and thus 

 continue till the desired amount of 

 increase is obtained. I increased my 

 colonies in this way last season, from 

 2 to 10, and produced over S((0 pounds 



of honey, nearly all of which being 

 gathered from goldenrod in 10 days in 

 September." 



Dr. G. L. Tinker replies thus : 

 "To increase colonies rapidly and get 

 surplus at the same time, build them 

 up strong in early spring ; then those 

 colonies which "swarm, divide into 

 nuclei with a queen-cell for each. 

 Hive all swarms on 6 or 7 brood- 

 frames ; a queen-excluder and a case 

 of sections to be adjusted to the hive 

 previously or soon after." 



Explanatory.— The figures before the 



names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 preWous spring- and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named : 

 5 north of the centre : 9 south ; 0+ east : 

 +0 west: and this 6 northeast: VD northwest; 

 o^ southeast: and P southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



A Would-be Critic. 



WJI. F. CLARKE. 



Mr. Jas. McNeill pays his respects 

 to me on page 39 of the Bee Jour- 

 nal, in a way that tempts, if it does 

 not indeed demand reply. That I am 

 " a would-be discoverer " is a charge 

 which I shall neither attempt to 

 palliate nor deny. It is what we all 

 are, if we are worthy the name of bee- 

 keepers. 



" 'Twere better to have loved and lost 

 Than never to have loved at all." 



So it were better to have tried and 

 failed, than never to have made an 

 earnest attempt at discovery. The 

 man who goes thr(fugh a mechanical 

 routine, never observing, never trying 

 to find out something new, is a very 

 unworthy and ignoble specimen of his 

 kind. 



In calmer moments, I have thought 

 that it would have been " chust as 

 weel,'' (to quote a Highland phrase) 

 if 1 had announced my " assumed dis- 

 covery " in a less excited manner ; 

 but Mr. McNeill probably knows from 

 his own experience, that " great men 

 are not always wise," and that all 

 philosophers are not stoics. In this 

 cold world, it is a good thing that a 

 man can warm up once in awhile, and 

 tliere are so many stolid people 

 around us, that a little enthusiasm is 

 needed now and then to give zest and 

 variety to life. A far greater man 

 than I pretend to be, once confessed. 

 " I am become a fool in glorying." 

 But as he was addressing friends and 

 brethren, he put in his plea : " Yet as 

 a fool receive me, that I may boast 

 myself a little." Then with a keen 



stroke of irony and sarcasm, he added, 

 " For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye 

 yourselves are wise." Mr. McNeill 

 can easily make the apiilication of 

 these quotations for and to himself. 

 If I have erred, as probably I have, 

 in beingtoo gi'eatly elated, I have done 

 so in excellent company. 



I am blamed for not having made 

 " careful and prolonged experiments," 

 with 'observations tested and re- 

 tested," before giving my theory to 

 the apiarian world. What length of 

 time would that have taken ? Several 

 years at least. Being in the neighbor- 

 hood of threescore, life was too sliort 

 with me to go through so tedious a 

 process. Besides, tlie job could be 

 done up " a great sight quicker " by 

 asking my fellow bee-keepers to join 

 with me in making the necessary ex- 

 periments. Moreover, a large num- 

 ber of experiments and observations 

 already made, seemed to point in the 

 direction of my theory, as I have 

 shown in my essay on " Wintering 

 Bees," read before the Rochester 

 Convention. Surely, I ought rather 

 to be commended for giving all and 

 sundry the benefit of my valuable dis- 

 covery, as I thought and still think it, 

 without delay, and without reserve. 

 There is "nobody hurt" either by 

 my enthusiasm or my precipitancy, 

 even if my theory be incorrect ; while 

 if I am right, I deserve to rank 

 among public benefactors, for 

 promptly disseminating a good idea. 



JNIr. McNeill says that I have 

 "furnished no demonstrable proof 

 that bees really do hibernate ;" yet he 

 admits that I have cited " instances 

 where quietness, small consumption 

 of honey, and excellent condition of 

 bees in the spring, would favor the 

 opinion that the dormant state is the 

 natural condition of bees in winter." 

 This admission does not entirely 

 square with the statement that I have 

 furnished "no demonstrable proof" 

 of hibernation. But the admission 

 does not fairly state my case as I have 

 presented it to the public. I have 

 " furnished demonstrable proof " 

 that, under favorable circumstances, 

 bees relapse into a state of torpor or 

 semi-torpor, quiescence, or dormancy, 

 during winter in cold or temperate 

 climates ; also that small consumption 

 of stores and excellent condition in 

 spring are the results of their so 

 doing. If this is not " demonstrable 

 proof '" that bees hibernate, I am at a 

 loss to know what could be " fur- 

 nished " as such. If Mr. McNeill can 

 show that the dormant state is ab- 

 normal, and results disastrously, I will 

 accept it as "demonstrable [dis]- 

 proof'of the position that hiberna- 

 tion is the natural condition of bees 

 in winter. 



Mr. McNeill tells us that in his 

 opinion " it does not make an iota of 

 difference whether you call this 

 much-desired winter condition of 

 bees quietness or hibernation." lie 

 also tries to show that I have only 

 insisted upon what bee-keepers have 

 long known to be important, namely, 

 a quiet state. I do not like to suspect 

 or accuse a fellow bee-keeper of will- 

 ful unfairness, but my would-be 

 critic, after six months' incubation 



