THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



113 



Nebel & Son Supply Co., $18; Walter 

 Pouder, |;24; J. B. Mason, $12. 



Of course, it must be understood 

 that the matter has onlj' now been 

 given to the public, and those who have 

 joined have done so throug-h private 

 correspondence. 



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Some Criticisms on the Sibbald Article. 



In the correspondence department 

 will be found an article from Mr. 

 Hr. Stachelhausen, in which he shows 

 the short comings (as thej' appear to 

 him) of the Sibbald system of prevent- 

 ing swarming. In addition I clip from 

 private letters the following: 



Mr. Thorne, Ottawa, Canada, fears 

 that the bees will swarm from the hive 

 on the old stand, when the iirst young 

 queen hatches. Mr. Sibbald says not, 

 and I should not expect it, as they 

 have lost most of their brood, and re- 

 covered from the swarming-fever. 



Mr. J, A. Green, of Colorado, says: 

 The only flaw that I can see in the 

 Sibbald plan is that unless the queen 

 cell given the colony on the old stand 

 is already sealed, a poor queen is 

 likely to be the result, unless a greater 

 number of young bees is given than 

 will be found on one comb. Whether 

 the bees will work as well in the supers 

 as under the ordinary plan is a little 

 doubtful; that is something that must 

 be learned by experiment. 



Morley Pettit, of Canada, says: Sib- 

 bald's idea is a good one, but I prefer 

 to manipulate the brood chamber so as 

 to avoid dividing the force at all, and, 

 in working for extracted honey, I can 

 do this to a large extent. 



Another countryman of Mr. Sibbald 

 writes me quite a long letter on the sub- 

 ject. I am not sure that he cares to 

 have his name appear, so I will with- 

 hold it. Here are some of the things 

 he wrote: — 



With yourself, I am inclined to doubt 

 whether the re-united colony will stay 

 cured of the swarming fever. With a 

 young queen at the head of the united 

 colony, I should expect no more 

 swarming, but, if the "old lady" were 

 left with a brood nest somewhat 

 crowded, I should be "suspicious." 

 Digressing a little, I would say that 



in the production of extracted honey, a 

 similar plan works well when shook- 

 swarming is practiced. Five or six 

 days after shaking, destroy all queen 

 cells on the brood combs, and place 

 them as an extra super over the colonj' 

 on the old stand, All the force is 

 thus united, and there will be no more 

 swarming. The brood combs, when 

 filled with honey, are excellent for 

 winter-stores where one does not wish 

 to extract the honey on account of some 

 of it being dark. For two or three 

 years I treated some colonies in exactly 

 the same manner as Mr. Sibbald treat- 

 ed his, but I hadn't brains enough to 

 see its possibilities. However, I found 

 one very serious objection to it, and 

 that is, that, in some cases, the old 

 bees would find and join the old col- 

 ony; and, even when the working force 

 did stay at the old stand, the strength 

 of the colony was not nearly so great 

 as by the shaking process. 



"Swarthmore, " of Pennsylvania, 

 says he has practiced the Sibbald 

 method for several seasons, and found 

 it O. K. The bees not onlj' tear down 

 the queen cells, but they also dig out 

 every bit of drone brood and dispose of 

 every live drone. 



W. E. Flower, of Pennsylvania, 

 wishes to know if Mr. Sibbald con- 

 tracts the brood nest in the new hive 

 on the old stand. I think not. If I am 

 not correct, Mr. Sibbald can correct 

 me. — Ed. Revikw. 



I am very glad of all this criticism. 

 If the system is not practicable, if it 

 has more disadvantages than advan- 

 tages, the sooner we know it the better; 

 and that is exactly the reason why I 

 urged Mr. Sibbald so hard to allow 

 me to publish it, that it might the 

 sooner be tested and tried. My advice 

 to all is to try it on a moderate scale 

 and see how it works. 



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Helping Weak Swarms in the Spring, 



Last April the Review published an 

 article by Mr. E. W, Alexander, of 

 New York, in which he explained how 

 he saved weak colonies by setting them 

 over strong ones. I will quote from 

 his article the description of how the 

 work was done. It is as follows: — 



