246 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



September 



and does away with the cutting out of 

 queen cells ; and even from strong 

 colonies I got no after-swarms. Al- 

 though this may not be the first time 

 this method has appeared in print, as 

 r do not claim to be the originator of 

 it, it will bear repeating. The prac- 

 tice has been to hive the prime swarm 

 on the old stand and set the parent 

 colony in a new position. This is a 

 very good plan, as the swarm catches 

 all the field workers but there are still 

 lots of young bees left in the old hive 

 which are ready to go to the field, and 

 in the next two or three days will fiy 

 out, and, having marked their new 

 location, will return to their parent 

 hive, and unless the queen cells are 

 cut out there will be a second, and 

 often a third swarm. If one wants 

 increase instead of honey this is an 

 easy way to get it, especially if the 

 swarm comes in the early part of the 

 season and there is a good honey flow ; 

 with a little attention these swarms 

 will build up two good colonies by 

 fall, but very often they will not, and 

 then there are a lot of weak colonies 

 to care for, and the beekeeper will 

 not have harvested as many tons of 

 honey as he might reasonably have 

 expected. It does not pay to have 

 weak colonies in the midst of a rich 

 flow of nectar, I know of no thing 

 so asperating to the enthusiastic bee 

 keeper. 



Now the best way I know of to 

 prevent after-swarms is to have all 

 the bees that can fly to go with the 

 first swarm, and this is the way I man- 

 age it : Have all colonies strong, even 

 if it should be necessary to 

 double them up in the spring, so that 

 they will swarm at the beginning of 

 the honey flow. Then hive the prime 



swarm on the old stand, removing the 

 super, if any, from the parent hive to 

 the swarm ; then set the parent hive 

 on top of the swarm hive and allow it 

 to remain there two or three days. 

 All the young bees that have ever 

 been out of the hive, when they come 

 out, will go in below with the swarm. 

 About the afternoon of the second day, 

 if the weather has been favorable, the 

 parent colony will become so depleted 

 of bees that they will give up swarm- 

 ing a second time, and will begin to 

 carry out drone brood. 



It is then safe to carry them to a 

 new location ; they will not swarm 

 again but will build up to be a strong 

 colony and will store some fall honey 

 and be a good colony to winter. In 

 this way we get extra strong swarms 

 that will store more than the two to- 

 gether would if the queen cells had 

 been cut out. Crowd the brood cham- 

 ber with bees instead of contracting it. 



Denison, Iowa. 



NO CR0WIN(; HENS. 



At a very recent date, in many parts of 

 our country, it was a sign of bad luck for a 

 hen to crow. Just why, is difficult to trace; 

 perhaps because it was considered the as- 

 sumption by a female of masculine preroga- 

 tive. Whenever a hen dared attempt it, 

 she was immediately run down by the unit- 

 ed efforts of all the children on the premi- 

 ses, and her head paid the forfeit. 



A recent traveler in Kentucky writes that 

 while visiting at the country home of a 

 friend a hen was heard to crow. Instantly 

 the cry was raised, "Catch her! Kill 

 her" He interposed in the hen's behalf* 

 by reminding his liosts that this was an 

 " age of rights," and she was therefore not 

 guilty of any wrong-doings. They scoffed 

 at his heterodoxy, and the clamor that fol" 

 lowed prepared them for the return of the 

 pursuers bearing the head of the fo»lish 

 fowl. — Elizabeth F. Seat, in September LlP- 

 pindott's. 



