VOL. VI. 



Jf\NUfVRY, 1896. 



NO. 1. 



A Napoleonic Method. 



BY WILDER GRAHAME. 



One of Napoleon's points of success 

 was in the readiness with which, when 

 occasion required it, he "made a sac- 

 rifice;" that is, in military parlance, 

 allowed a certain portion of his army 

 to be destroyed in order to save the 

 rest of it or bring it through victorious- 



I never heard that Napoleon was 

 particularly distinguished as a keeper 

 of bees, though I believe he did adopt 

 the busy insect as his symbol. No 

 doubt had he undertaken it his apiary 

 would have stood prior (in point of 

 time) even to Dr. Miller's. At all 

 events I think it frequently pays bee- 

 keepers to adopt a few of Napoleon's 

 rules, such as 



" Every lost moment brings oppor- 

 tunity for disaster." "The truest 

 wisdom is a resolute determination.'' 

 " Victory belongs to the most preserv- 

 ing." " Providence is always on the 

 side of the last reserve, etc. All this 

 however, is foreign to what I started 

 to elucidate; viz., "making a sac- 

 rifice." 



In swarming time the care of the 

 apiarist is by no means over with the 

 capture of the bees. Bees carry sup- 

 plies with them usually to last them a 



few hours, depending upon gathering 

 fast enough to keep up the supply. 

 Now suppose the bees should come 

 out at a time when there is little hon- 

 ey. Again, supposing there was 

 plenty of honey to be gathered but 

 weather wholly unfit to gather it in. 

 I have found bees starving with honey 

 in all the trees about them. And yet 

 again, when swarms come out as late 

 as many did this season it is sometimes 

 an impossibility for the bees to lay in 

 their winter stock unaided. And still 

 again, not a few have been entertain- 

 ed after carefully swarming a colony 

 to see them afterwards deliberately 

 come forth and take wing for a more 

 distant country. For all of these evils 

 the Napoleonic method is suggested 

 as a remedy. 



In selecting the colony or colonies 

 for the " sacrifice," care must be taken 

 that swarms are taken strong enough 

 to fulfill their duty. By stimulating 

 build them up early in the spring; 

 then add a second story of brood 

 racks, Do not use a honey-board. 

 If the queen goes into the second sto- 

 ry so much the better; only, be sure 

 and keep queen cells cut out, lor no 

 swarming is vvanted here. 



Whenever a new swarm comes oif, 



