150 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



days old, which had been introduced and 

 accepted wlien no cells were present. It 

 is hardly necessary to say that virgin 

 queens can be kept in nursery cages at 

 little or no cost. 



1 assume that not one honey-producer 

 out of t»n is so situated that be can sell 

 surplus bees at a price that will cover the 

 cost of liives, combs and winter stores ; 

 and as long as this state o( things exists, 

 some reliable method wliicli will prevent 

 swarming and put the matter of increase 

 in the liands ot the apiarist, will continue 

 to be a deeply felt want. 1 have experi- 

 mented in this line for two years past, and 

 will here give my metbod of " preventing 

 swarming "—a part of whicli has hereto- 

 fore been published— hoping that others 

 may help me in perfecling the sj'stem of 

 manipulation, or aid in superseding it 

 with a better system. 



At the commencement of the honey 

 season 1 adjust the surplus arrangements 

 on the liives in the usual way, and keep 

 close watch over the bies. When I see 

 ••signs" of swariniiii;, I proceed to move 

 the hive from its stand, setting it at right 

 angles thereto. I now place a bottom- 

 board on the old or vacant stand, and pro- 

 ceed to lift the surplus apartment from 

 the original liive and put it on the bottom- 

 aboard containing combs and bees. One 

 of the frames is supplied with a piece of 

 comb containing larvie just batched. 1 

 look up the queen in the brood apartment 

 of the parent colony, and put the frame 

 on which she is found, in a comb box. I 

 now shake nearly all the bees from the 

 remaining combs, in front ot the surplus 

 apartment, restore the frame with the 

 queen to its place, and close up the origi- 

 nal hive, and disguise it bv spreading a 

 cloth over it. At the first, the bees at the 

 surplus apartment will show consideralile 

 excitement, but will soon start (pieen-cells 

 and gather honey with the greatest 

 rapidity. They are provided with addi- 

 tional room as fast as they need it. After 

 six or seven days the original hive is yra<l- 

 ually turned around so as to bring both 

 entrances practically together. 



At the end of ten days, if the season 

 continues good, the (|ueen-ce!ls must be 

 removed from the surplus apartment and 

 substituted with freshly hatched larv;c, 

 and if there is still protiiibility of swarm- 

 ing, the old hive is turned back to its 

 former position, at right angles witli the 

 surplus apartment, at a time when the 

 bees are at work in full force in the fields. 

 This will recruit the failing strength of 

 the honey-producing colony at the expense 

 of the parent colony. These ijianipula- 

 tioiis are kept up till the swarming season 

 is nearly over, when the bees are united 

 by replacing the surplus apartment on the 

 (lid hive, and restoring the latter to its 

 original stand ; and the united colony 

 finishes up the honey harvest. 



It will be seen that my system contem- 

 plates a divided colony during the iiiain 

 swarming season, the qneenless division 

 producing the surplus honey, while the 

 parent colony produces the bees. 1 do 

 not claim that trie nianipulatioiis which I 

 employ are new ; I only claim that the 

 system is new, or in other words, that I 

 have systematized well known niani|nila- 

 lions and made them serve a jiurpuse, viz : 

 lirevent swarming not hereto known or 

 Iiracticed. 



I have no hesitation in saying that by 

 this management I can produce extracted 

 lioney in greater quantity and of better 

 quality, and with less labor than by any 

 plan heretofore suggested. By employing 

 'lie " tieriim up" plan no houey need be 

 extracted till mar the close of the honey 

 h:irvest. To produce comb lioney by my 

 new systen', I liave louiid it necessary to 

 work a case of shallow fiames under tlie 

 section -cases to catdi the small ainount of 

 pollen which the qneenless bees will bring 

 in while l^iiilding (iiieeii-eells. 



Mr. Bledsoe (Miss.) did not tbink it 

 advisable to introduce virgin queens. 

 Mr. Viallon (La.) advised the clip- 

 ping ot the wings of qtieens to pre- 

 vent swarming. He lias bad virgin 

 queens accepted by the bees !) times 

 out of 10. 



Mr. Muth (Ohio) prevents drone- 

 rearing, and hence has no more in- 

 crease than he desires. His combs 

 are all worker combs, and he needs no 

 drone-traps nor any other useless fix- 

 tures. 



Mr. Dadant (111.): The cause of 

 swarming is the excess of drones, and 

 these must be disposed of before they 

 hatch, and their place filled with 

 " worker " comb foundation. 



Mr. Viallon (La.) said that when 

 a partial honey flow came, the bees 

 would swarm, but when the full 

 honey -flow arrived, the bees never 

 had "the swarming - fever ; " when 

 the honey-flow ceases, then they would 

 commence to swarm again. To give 

 the bees extra room woiud not prevent 

 swarming in Loirisiana. 



Mr. McKinsey (La.) said that when 

 the bees had no honey to gather, they 

 would swarm, no matter whatarrange- 

 ments were made to prevent it. 



Dr. Fox (La.) : When there is a 

 full flow of honey, there is no swarm- 

 ing here in Louisiana. 



Mr. Bledsoe (Miss.) could, by his 

 method, prevent his bees from swarm- 

 ing. 



Mr. W'allace (Out.) remarked that 

 in Canada, svvariuiug was the rule 

 when the honey-flow was abundant, 

 and was surprised to learn that it was 

 just the opposite in the Soutli. 



Rev. L. .Johnson (Ky.) who had but 

 just arrived, came up to the President 

 with a white clover blo.ssom in his 

 hand, and presented it to the Congress, 

 as "the flrst fruits" of the coming 

 harvest. lie liad plucked it on his 

 way to the meeting, and hoped that 

 it would be regarded by the Congress 

 as the bright omen of a plentiful crop 

 of honey. Here the clover was bloom- 

 ing while the thousands of colonies 

 owned by tliose present from the 

 Northern and Middle States, were in 

 a state of repose and quietude by rea- 

 son of the intense cold and the deep 

 mantle of snow under wliicli they 

 were buried. 



Mr. J. W. Winder (Thibodeaux, La.) 

 presented the Congress with a large 

 bouquet of honey-producing flowers 

 j ust gathered near Chicago (i. e., merely 

 907 miles directly south of its frozen 

 region). This the President presented 

 to Mrs. L. Harrison, of Illinois. 



:Mr. B. F. Carroll (Tex.) said that 

 he prevented swarming by tiering-up 

 and the use of the honey-extractor. 



Dr. Hudson (S. C.) said that increase 

 would come unless better care was ex- 

 ercised and the queen-cells were care- 

 fully cut out. 



Mr. Flournoy (Tex.) said he pre- 

 vents swarming by boring holes in the 

 hives to give the bees air, and by tier- 

 ing-up. , . 



I)r. Besse (Ohio) had 170 colonies 

 last spring, and only permitted 7 

 swarms to issue. lie gave the bees 

 room and " tiereil-up." 



An essay by Dr. C. C. Miller, of Illi- 

 nois, was reiid by assistant Secretary 

 Hart, on 



SECTIONS FOE COMIl HONEY. 



It has become pretty well settled that 

 whoever produces conib honey for market 

 will, in the present state ot advancement, 

 use sections. The one-piece section seems 

 at present most popular, and it onlv one 

 size were to be used, it would probably 

 be the one-pound section. Of this tlie 

 section i^xii^ inches is most generally 

 used, having a width of nearly 3 inches 

 when used with separators, and about 1% 

 inches when used without separators. 

 Different markets require different sizes, 

 and it is possible that entire uniformity of 

 size may never be attained. In Boston 

 the half-pound sections have been sold 

 as high as .5 cents per pound above the 

 price of largT sections, while in Chicago 

 they bring no higher price than the one- 

 pounds. So each one must study his own 

 market, and it may be that on the same 

 market more honey will be sold if cus- 

 tomers can select from a variety of sizes. 

 Undoubtedly there are advantages in 

 favor of having only one size of sections, 

 as manufacturers can afford to sell sec- 

 tions at a lower price it there is sfnne- 

 thing like a standard size, and can afford 

 to keep a stock on hand, so that ordeis 

 can be filled at any time. Whether sep- 

 arators are to be used or not, each one 

 must decide for himself; certain circum- 

 stances or methods of manipulation favor- 

 ing dispensing with separators more than 

 others. 



I have noticed quite a difference, in 

 different years, in the weight of sections; 

 some years the so-called "pound sec- 

 tions " average more than a pound ; other 

 years, less. Whether this is due to a dif- 

 ference of seasons or a difference in man- 

 agement, I am not prepared to say. Prob- 

 ably both enter into the problem. 



In the year 18S3 I experimented with 

 .sections i'4x4y inches and of five ditfer- 

 ent wi<ltlis. The ordinary pound sections, 

 scant :i inches in width, used with separa- 

 tors, averaged 14..32 oz. per section ; the 

 others were used without separators and 

 averaged as follows : 



1 .'i-T inches averaged 13.8 oz. 



l}4 inches averagi d 1 1.7(i oz. 



1 1-3 inches averaged lf).47 oz. 



1 1-.5 inches averaged n..57 oz. 



So far as the experiment went to sliiiw, 

 it appeared that the sections 13-ij' inches in 

 width suited the notions of the bees the 

 best, and if I should dispense with sep- 

 arators I should prefer sections IX inches 

 in width. 



Amongst the problems regarding sec- 

 tions on which light is needed, is the 

 question, wliat shall be done with un- 

 finislied sections at the close of the lumey- 

 How ? Last year I extracted part and 

 fed back the honey to get the bees to 

 finish the balance. The result was not 

 entirely satisfactory. Wluit shall be done 

 with the partly finished sections from 

 which the houey has been exti acted'? 

 Shall they be kept till the heaviest flow 

 comes in the next season, or shall they be 

 used as baits to iinlnce the bees to begin 

 work in supers at the beginning of the 

 honey-flow ? 



Mr. Wallace (Out.) remarked that 

 he removed all unfinished sections at 

 the close of the honey-harvest, extrac- 

 ted the honey, let them freeze, and 

 put them away for use next season. 



Mr. Newman said that the size ol 

 the sections to be used, should be de- 

 termined by the markets to be sup- 

 plied, no matter wliat tlie preferences 

 of the bee-keeper might be. While 

 the li-lb. sections were preferred by 



