438 



TH® MMEKICMIf WMM J^WmMMI^. 



a 



dated Oct. 12, 1800, aud the last Aug. 

 12, 1814, "were written partly by Huber 

 himself, partly by his wife or daughter, 

 to whom he dictated. So far as I know, 

 this correspondence has never been 

 translated into German, which is 

 gi'eatly to be regretted. 



When one reads of Huber's observa- 

 tions, it becomes evident that the au- 

 thor interested himself in bees, from a 

 scientific stand-point onl}'. In one of 

 his letters to a friend, he writes that 

 he never realized any material benefit 

 from bees. This is easy to understand 

 when we consider that his experiments 

 with them' lasted the entire year 

 through, and were conducted only for 

 the sake of science ; and one naturally 

 inquires how he found bees enough to 

 carry out his numerous experiments. 



% 



HoAv to Secure Large Increase 

 of Colonies. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



Query 642.— I have between 80 and 100 

 colonies of bees, and desire to increase them 



freatly by natural swarmlnfr. 1. What shall 

 do to accomplish it ? 2. Will liberal feeding 

 do it ?— va. 



Your second query answers the first. 

 — J. M. Hambaugh. 



1. Confine them to the brood-apart- 

 ment. 2. Early feeding will help, if 

 short of stores. — H. D. Cutting. 



1. Feed and give no surplus room. 

 2. Yes, with treatment as just stated. 

 — Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Liberal feeding and contraction of 

 the brood-chamber will promote it. — 

 J. P. H. Brown. 



Let them swarm. You will probably 

 get all you want this year. — C. H. Dib- 



BERN. 



1. Feeding liberally for three weeks 

 before an expected flow of honey, will 

 accomplish it. — G. L. Tinker. 



Stimulate by feeding sparingly until 

 the harvest opens, then work for 

 swarms, not honey. — A. J. CoOK. 



2. It will do it sometimes, but not 

 always. Daily moderate feeding is 

 better than liberal, for the purpose 



P. L. VlALLON. 



1. They will do it themselves, prob- 

 ably too much. 2. That will help, but 

 it may not pay in all cases. — C. C. 

 Miller. 



Liberal feeding and contraction of 

 the brood-nest will undoubtedly ac- 

 complish the desire of your heart. — 

 EcGENE Secok. 



1. If I desired to increase greatly, I 

 would not do it by natural swarming. 

 I would rear queens and divide, using 



full sheets of foundation. 2. Liberal 

 feeding will promote swarming, of 

 course, provided that it is done regu- 

 larly and steadily, when natural re- 

 sources are not abundant. — M. Mahin. 



Yes, and crowding the queen by 

 contraction ; but it is a poor waj'. We 

 would prefer rearing good queens, and 

 making swarms by dividing. — Dadant 

 & Son. 



If j-our yield is good, and you hive 

 after-swarms, they should increase all 

 jou desire without feeding. — G. M. 



DOOLITTLE. 



1. Have prolific queens, and do not 

 ti-y to secure any surplus honey. 2. 

 If there is not an abundance of honey 

 being gathered, judicious feeding will 

 help. — A. B. Mason. 



1. If there is a good honej--flow, 

 they will be apt to swarm at least once. 

 I have tried everything that I ever 

 read of, to prevent swarming, but 

 never succeeded. 2. Feeding will be 

 a help, if honey is scarce. — Mahala 

 B. Chaddock. 



Adopt the nucleus plan of " artifi- 

 cial " swarming ; feed liberally when 

 needed, and build up. Keep at least 

 one-half of the colonies intact, to draw 

 brood from, with which to build up 

 the nuclei.^-J. E. Pond. 



A good honey-flow is what you 

 should have. Liberal feeding will help 

 greatly — but, it is " dangerous." I 

 think, upon the whole, if it were me, I 

 should let Nature have her own way. — 

 Will M. Barnum. 



1. Hive each swarm on a new loca- 

 tion, and retain with the swarm only 

 suflicient bees to build up into a good 

 colony, letting the rest go back. If 

 that does not make it livelj' enough 

 for you, feed in times of scarcity. — R. 

 L. Taylor. 



If the season does not furnish the 

 means to your ends, produce them by 

 feeding. Feed just enough to promote 

 the rearing of brood, and feed daily. 

 Do not feed so much as to gorge the 

 combs, but feed just enough — observe 

 closely, and feed " just enough." — J. 

 M. Shuck. 



You can encourage swarming by 

 giving the bees only just enough sur- 

 plus I'oom at once to keep them busy ; 

 that is, none to spare. Do not keep 

 them well shaded, but allow solar heat 

 to make their home uncomfortable. 

 Pray for a favorable season for swarm- 

 ing. You need not feed. — James 

 Heddon. 



1. Go right ahead, and take all the 

 comb honey that you can procure by 

 good management, and if the season 

 is a good one, the bees will swarm 

 more than would suit me. 2. Yes, if 

 your bees are short of stores, liberal 

 feeding will hasten swarming, if done 



at the right time in the spring ; and if 

 the bees have plenty of stores, un- 

 capping some of it will stimulate 

 breeding. It will pay j'ou best, in tlin 

 long run, to take all the honey you 

 can while your bees are inci'easing. — 

 G. W. Demaree. 



Probably it -ivill be as well to divide 

 the colonies and thus increase them. 

 If honey is plenty, they will not nee<l 

 feeding ; if it is not, then feed them 

 liberally. — The Editor. 



VIRGIN QUEENS. 



The Successful Introduction of 

 Virgin Queens. 



Written Jor the American Bee Jmirnal 



BY E. STRONG. 



In the near future a method of in- 

 troducing virgin and " old maid " 

 queens will be established, which will 

 be reasonably successful in the hands 

 of experienced men. We shall all be 

 pleased to learn how ; and to this end 

 I will relate the circumstances of a 

 recent case : 



Finding several youngqueens in one 

 hive, kept in by the bad weather, I 

 separated them into small nuclei. The 

 bad weather continued, and at the end 

 of five days a swarm issued from 

 another colony, as soon as the sun 

 came out. From the old colonj' I re- 

 moved two frames from one side, and 

 in their place I put the two frames, 

 bees and all containing the virgin 

 queen, leaving her on the outside, and 

 leaving a half-inch space between the 

 two frames aud the other frames of the 

 old hive. 



The old hive was placed in the rear 

 of the new swarm. This space being 

 more than a bee will readily cross, 

 acts, in this case, as a division-board, 

 and the j'oung queen will naturally re- 

 main in her division for a number of 

 hours, but not longer, and she probably 

 will not be seen there again. The in- 

 creased heat and noise of the new 

 home will induce her to mate without 

 delay, and her return to the old stand 

 of the nucleus, increase the danger of 

 her loss. 



This introduction succeeding. I tried 

 another of similar age (five days), by 

 placing her on a frame of mostly young 

 bees, put down outside the hive. But 

 they made a furious attack, and the 

 poor queen yelled for help. By the 

 peeping of an introduced queen, the 

 " balling" can be discovered without 

 opening the hive. 



This introduction 7iot succeeding, 

 I returned her to her nucleus, and 



