THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



Ifi.-; 



of these indexes are very voluminous — 

 the journals contain so much that this 

 particular man cares so little about. 

 Every man, as he reads the journals, 

 will occasionally come across an 

 article that is especially valuable to 

 him; and, later, when he wishes to re- 

 fer to it ag-ain, he don't find it. 



Mr. Charles B. Achard, of Roselle, 

 Illinois, uses the card system, which, 

 by the way, is now applied to so many 

 uses. In an article written for Glean- 

 ing-s he describes his plan as follows: — 



I g-ot a plain "Macey" card-index 

 box, also one set of alphabet index- 

 cards, and about a hundred blank 

 cards. Whenever I come across any- 

 thing- in a bee journal that I think I 

 mig'-ht wish to refer to afterward I 

 mark the article, or part of it, with 

 pencil. About once a month I look 

 the papers over and note the subject, 

 name, page, and volumn of the bee 

 journal on the card, allowing a sepa- 

 rate card for each subject. For ex- 

 ample : 



U'ifitering, requirements for success- 

 ful— t^^z'., 102, 1903. 



IVifitering, ventilation — Rev., 114, '03. 



Queens, introducing-— G^/., 376, 545, 

 1903. 



Queens, introducing-, shower-bath 

 method— G"/., 185, 1903. 



In this way, if I wish to look up any 

 valuable sug-gestion it takes but a few 

 seconds to find what I want. Perhaps 

 you may think I would soon have hun- 

 dreds of cards filled; but I find that, 

 during- the whole of last year, I used 

 but a few over 100 cards, and they are, 

 most of them, not half full, as I can 

 put ten to twelve items under a g-iven 

 subject on one card. I take four papers 

 — the American Bee-keeper; American 

 Bee Journal, Reviezv, and Cleanings, 

 and I think the averag-e bee-keeper 

 takes no more than that. 



SHOOK SWARMING. 



Some Ways That are not Profitable and 

 One Way That Always Succeeds, 



In the March Review I published an 

 article from Mr. M. A. Gill, of Long-- 



mont, Colorado, in which he tells how 

 he often shakes two colonies into one, 

 thereby securing- excellent, results. 

 Last Aug-ust, the editor of the Rocky 

 Mountain Bee Journal told, in an ed- 

 itorial, of his failures and successes 

 in practicing- shook-swarming-, and 

 his big-gest success was in this same 

 line of shaking- two colonies tog-ether. 

 He tells so many other important 

 thing-s about shook-swarming- that I 

 think it worth while to copy the entire 

 article, which is as follows: — 



During the present season we made 

 an extensive trial of "shook" swarm- 

 ing, and, to a limited extent, dequeen- 

 ing, as a means of controlling'- swarm- 

 ing in out-apiaries. Altogether about 

 200 colonies were treated for the 

 swarming fever, with varying results, 

 a recital of which may prove of some 

 value to the readers of the Journal. 

 As all our apiaries are out-apiaries, 

 and returns do not justify the employ- 

 ment of help at each apiary to hive 

 swarms, the problem is, to us, a vital 

 one, and involves, to a large extent, 

 the success or failure of our business, 

 from a financial standpoint. Our 

 efl^orts were directed solely from a 

 dollars-and-cents basis, not only dol- 

 lars saved, but more dollars actually 

 earned through a proper direction of 

 the energies of the bees. 



To sum up in advance, we achieved 

 both success and failure, learned many 

 things valuable for future guidance, 

 and dispelled some of the illusions 

 that have been commonly accepted as 

 facts. 



Our greatest objection to shook 

 swarming- is the large amount of hard 

 work that it involves. This was es- 

 peciall}^ true the present season, when 

 colonies went wild with the swarming 

 fever and swarmed, not according to 

 time honored rules, but with a seeming 

 anarchistic desire to turn the apiary 

 into a daily pandemonium. This ten- 

 dency of man}' of the colonies to swarm 

 before they were strong in bees vastly 

 augmented the work and seriously im- 

 paired the results. A few of the col- 

 onies that were shaken at the first in- 

 dication of swarming (eggs in the cell 

 cups) have not worked in the supers at 

 all. The colonies that were held back 



