18 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



down before they got the five frames 

 completely filled, and the bees gradually 

 subsided into a state of leisure. 



Other experiments proved that the 

 bees swarmed because crowded, or be- 

 cause they were too hot. In one case a 

 colony that had made no preparations for 

 swarming issued from the hive, clustered 

 on a tree near by, and after having 

 cooled themselves ofi', returned to their 

 home. As I watched them hanging, I 

 thought what a helpless looking sight 

 they were, and what a striking picture 

 they would make with the title, " Far 

 From Home." 



I read up all I could find in the bee- 

 books about swarming, and when I 

 found in John Keys' old work (1814) 

 this brief passage in a paragraph about 

 the troubles of swarming-time, "These 

 disadvantages are admirably remedied 

 by storifying," I said to myself : "How 

 much progress have we made in regard 

 to this matter during a lapse of 77 

 years ?" Bee-keepers knew even then 

 that additional room would prevent 

 swarming. How much more do we know 

 about the matter to-day ? 



For the past few months I have been 

 cudgelling my brains in search of a 

 bee-hive capable both of expansion and 

 contraction. But I have no inventive 

 genius. Happily others have, and I do 

 not despair of such a hive being discov- 

 ered. Indeed, I am not sure that it has 

 not already been devised. 



The American Bee Journal recently 

 told us that a Mr. Allpaughhad patented 

 a device which looks in this direction. 

 ('A Mr. Allpaugh" seems to suggest 

 ome obscure bee-keeper unknown to 

 ^farne, but I must tell you that he is one 

 of our foremost Canadian bee-keepers — a 

 quiet, unassuming man, but possessing 

 the inventive faculty in a high degree. 

 He ties to nothing that is not practical 

 and useful. I am not possessed of his 

 secret yet, but mean to have it so soon 

 as I can scrape up .S5 wherewith to buy 

 it. Right on the back of this comes Mr. 

 John Conser's non-swarming hive, de- 

 scribed and figured in the American Bee 

 Journal of Nov. 2(5. Will either of 

 these inventions, or both of them, " fill 

 the bill ?" We shall see. 



The prevention of swarming is com- 

 paratively easy when you work for 

 extracted-honey, because you can 

 " storify " if you have frames of empty 

 combs. You can alternate these with 

 frames having only starters. 



But to get comb-honey by means of 

 added spac( — aye, there's the rub. The 

 bees do not readily take to building new 

 comb in section-boxes. Why is this '? I 



believe it is because of the inconvenience 

 they find for want of room to work. In 

 comb-building a relay of bees hang in 

 festoons that reach clear across the hive. 

 Another relay brings honey and feeds 

 the festooned workers. A third relay 

 takes the pellicles of wax from the fes- 

 toons, and builds the cells. 



When all this has to be done within 

 the limits of a one-pound section, it is 

 "mighty onconvenient " for the bees. 

 They are " cribbed, combined and con- 

 fined." Cannot some inventive bee- 

 keeper give us a section frame with 

 narrow partitions, just wide enough to 

 induce the bees to finish the sides of the 

 sections ? Or cannot we get the public 

 to buy sections reaching clear across the 

 hive, and holding four or five pounds ? 

 Or cannot we have cartons, into which a 

 pound of cut honey can be put, and her- 

 metically sealed to prevent leakage ? 



The public prefers honey in the comb. 

 There is a suspicion possibly of adulter- 

 ation in the case of extracted-honey. If 

 we allow our extracted-honey to be 

 capped all over and thoroughly ripened, 

 which is necessary to "get the best," we 

 cannot produce extracted-honey at much 

 less cost than we can comb-honey. Then 

 there is the daubing and mess more or 

 less connected with the process of ex- 

 tracting. The most unassuming bee- 

 keeper gets considerably "stuck up." It 

 is well known that I am heretical enough 

 to wish that the extractor had never been 

 invented. I use it as little as possible, 

 and if I can find a way of throwing all 

 the force of my apiary into the produc- 

 tion of comb-honey, I shall dispense 

 with it altogether. 



This is as far as I have got. I know 

 that swarming can be prevented by giv- 

 ing the bees room to work, as they 

 require and crave to use it. but how to 

 manage this in such a way that they will 

 do their level best in the production of 

 marketable comb-honey, well, this is 

 what, Dr. Miller-like, " I don't know." 



I want to add a word on the "swarm- 

 ing fever," as bee-keepers call it: There 

 is such a thing. It is a perfect mania 

 when it takes possession of a colony or 

 an apiary. A colony will swarm, and 

 swarm, and swarm again, no matter 

 how comfortably you may house thera. 



I flattered myself during the past sea- 

 son that I had discovered a cure for this 

 fever. I take my swarms in a swarm- 

 ing-bag of my own construction. The 

 bees drop into it. and a twist of the bag 

 makes them prisoners in a moment. By 

 hanging a bag of bees on a fence, and 

 leaving them all night, the fever will 

 cool oft". 



