THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



123 



young bees generate wax, build comb, and feed 

 the larvfE. Thus we have in our natural swarm 

 an abundance of bees exactly suited, by their va- 

 rious ages, for performing every duty essential to 

 perfect success. 



Now, what bees have we in'an artificial swarm? 

 In all the plans with which I am acquainted for 

 making artificial swarms we obtain mainly, for 

 such swarms, only those bees that have, by re- 

 peated flights from their hive, become so accus- 

 tomed to its location, that they will return to the 

 same spot, even if the old hive be removed and 

 a new one put in its place ; that is, we have 

 mainly old bees. Now, if every such bee, 

 namely, those accustomed to fly, and no others, 

 be taken from a strong colony, how many bees 

 will be left in the colony ? Oi, in other words, 

 how many bees of the old colony shall we fail to 

 get in our new artificial swarm ? And, again, 

 what would be the value of those bees in our ar- j 

 tificial swarm, if we could secure them, as we do 

 in natural swarming ? It has been found by care- 

 ful examination that a young bee does not leave 

 the hive for honey gathering until it is about six 

 teen days old. From this established tact it 

 would follow that in a populous colony where 

 two thousand young bees are hatching daily, 

 there must be, after making an artificial swarm, 

 about thirty thousand young bees remaining in 

 the old hive, which we therefore fail to get in our 

 artificial colony ; and a very disastrous failure it 

 is, too, for these are the wry bees we need in our 

 new colony for building the new combs, and are 

 in fact the only ones in the whole hive, qualified 

 by age and instinct for doing this important 

 work. 



To make an artificial swarm a success, there- 

 fore, I would drii-e out all the bees from a popu- 

 lous colony, brushing every bee from every comb 

 with a new hive placed on the old stand ; letting 

 the old hive, with a fertile queen (caged two 

 days) on the s'^and of a second populous colony — 

 removing the second to a new location ; or I 

 would drive from five or six colonies, setting the 

 driven swarmsin empty hives on their old stands 

 respectively, and supply workers to protect the 

 brood of the old hives" by dividing among the 

 bees from a single colony brought from a dis- 

 tance, inserting caged queens as before men- 

 tioned, closing the entrances of the old hives, so 

 that only a single bee could pass at a time. If I 

 had combs to spare, I would insert two in each 

 side, at one-thir . or at one-quarter of the width 

 of the hive, from each side. This arrangement 

 would cause the swarm to cluster mainly between 

 the two combs — would give the queen a place to 

 continue the deposition of eggs without interrup- 

 tion, and would furnish a temporary supply of 

 food for the youngest bees, and would iucluce 

 the building of straight combs, throughout the 

 hive — four rather important items. 



If I wished to make artificial swarms, I would 

 do it as above, believing it to be the nearest pos- 

 sible approacii to natural swarming. But / do 

 not wish to make such swarms. In fact, I do 

 not wish my bees to swarm at all. I make my 

 Mv^s very large, to prevent swarming as much j 

 as possible. I prefer, if I want more stock, to j 

 purchase them of my neighbors, and keep my ! 

 own sA work making box honey. One large I 



colony, if kept from swarming till late, will in a 

 good season (not one like the present) make sur- 

 plus honey enough to pay for five or even six 

 swarms. But if allowed to swarm early, the rule 

 is with me for neither old stock nor new swams 

 to make any honey. There have been a few ex- 

 ceptions to this rule. Notwithstanding the large 

 size of my hives, and my wish to prevent it, my 

 bees have generally swarmed, but not till after 

 making seventy-five or a hundred pounds of sur- 

 plus honey ; and then the swarms are so immense 

 in size that, although the season may be nearly 

 past for surplus honey, they manage to fill their 

 hives in a remarkably short time with a sufii- 

 cieiicy for winter. 



R. RlCKPOUD. 



Seneca Falls, N. Y., Oct. 3, 1869. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



That Proposition, 



Friend Gallop reminds me of the Irishman 

 that was spoiling for a fight, and, after other 

 means failsd, he put on a long-tailed coat and 

 went dragging it through the crowd, daring any 

 one to step on it. In the September number of 

 the Bee Journal, page 49, friend Gallop says, "if 

 friend Puckett accepts my proposition, you will 

 in all probability get reasons pro and en.'''' To 

 what proposition friend Gallop has reference, I 

 am at a loss to know, unless it is in regard to the 

 Langstroth hive. Friend Gallop says it needs 

 two inches more in depth of comb, in Iowa, 

 w^here he uses them. This may be so, and it 

 may not be so. There is at least a possibility that 

 friend Gallop may be mistaken. At all events he 

 has not yet proved it to be true. But I never 

 said that the Langstroth hive is perfect. Yet I 

 have said that, so far as I have tried it, it has 

 answered all the purposes that could be expected 

 of any hive. My bees passed the last winter on 

 their summer stands, in Langstroth' s hives, and 

 did well. My Italian stocks began to throw off' 

 (natural) swarms on the 15th of May, notwith- 

 standing the cold and backward spring, whereas 

 my neighbors' bees, in other form of hives, did 

 not swarm till late in June. I use the Lang- 

 stroth hive in Northern Illinois ; winter my bees 

 in them on their summer stands, and they do 

 well. 



During my visit this fall to the west, I met a 

 man named Salisbury, in Northern Illinois, a 

 very intelligent man, that understands his busi- 

 ness. He had over three hundred stands of bees. 

 He informed me that he was using the Lang- 

 stroth hive, with but seven inch frames; and he 

 thought bu'. ,six inches would be better still. But 

 he winters his bees in a cellar. 



There are two extremes. Mr. Gallup says 

 deeper "frames," and Mr. Salisbury says shal- 

 low frames. So, if Mr. Gallup is still spoiling 

 for " fun," as he calls it, I turn him over to Mr. 

 Salisbury — hoping that friend Gallup will stick 

 to the truth, and not state things merely to see 

 " what effect it will have." 



Friend Gallup, is or is not the Langstroth hive 

 " rejected all over the west ?" Again, is there 

 oris there not such a disease as dysentery amf)ngst 

 bees — your bees excepted ? These are questions 

 for you to settle, before you invite me to anything 



