306 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



Nor ember 



How to Avoid Fall Feeding and 

 Keep Down Increase. 



i!V J. R. COMMON. 



lu the fall of 1893 1 had my right 

 hand injured so I was unable to look 

 after my bees until near the middle of 

 November. I had fifteen colonies 

 and found them with about half 

 enough honey to carry them through 

 the winter and not any too strong in 

 numbers. As it was too late to feed 

 them for winter I doubled them up by 

 putting the hives one above the other. 

 My hives are made to fit on each oth- 

 er, they being the same size, double 

 Avail, ten fi-ame Simplicity. I put the 

 three weakest colonies into three hives 

 by brushing oft" the bees and giving 

 them the combs containing honey. 

 All this brought the number down to 

 seven colonies. Before uniting the 

 colonies I gave them a good smoking 

 with tobacco smoke and I had no 

 trouble with them. There was no 

 fighting or killing of bees. I packed 

 them for winter and left them until 

 spring, and when the warm days, of 

 March came I looked them over and 

 found I had seven of the strongest 

 colonies I had ever had. The lower 

 hives were packed full of bees. I fed 

 them in April, took off the upper 

 hives which were full of clean, dry 

 combs, and used them to put the 

 young swarms into when swarming 

 time came. After letting them swarm 

 once I cut out all the queen cells but 

 one which I enclosed in a queen cell 

 protector. This will usually prevent 

 them from swarming and keep the 

 bees working in the boxes. 



In the above manner fall feeding is 

 avoided and increase kept down. 



If there is any choice in the queens 

 remove the one that you do not want. 



Angelica, N. Y. 



A Swarming Time Question. 



BY CHAS H. THIES. 



The following in the American Bee 

 Journal, Oct. 8: "In working with 

 clipped queens, sometimes a swarm 

 issues and clusters on a tree before re- 

 turning to the hive. What is the 

 longest time such a swarm will re- 

 main before returning ? In other 

 words, how long is it safe to let them 

 hang without hiving before conclud- 

 ing that by some means there is with 

 the swarm a queen with whole wings ? " 



This question being of some import- 

 ance to those that practice clipping 

 their queens' wings, I thought a few 

 remarks would not be out of place to 

 the readers of the American Bee 

 Keeper, even if the question is out 

 of season, as during the winter months 

 is the time to prepare for next season's 

 work. I have had quite a little ex 

 perience with clipped queens, and 

 only abandoned it when I commenced 

 breeding queens, for often a queen 

 breeder gets behind and is compelled 

 to draw from full colonies and many 

 would not want a queen with clipped 

 wings. 



Now my experience has been that 

 bees do not cluster at all unless a 

 queen of some kind is with them, i. e., 

 all of the swarm does not cluster ; 

 most of the bees may cluster, but 

 they will remain nervious and unset- 

 tled. On the other hand if a colony 

 swarms, one which you think has or 

 know has had a clipped queen, and 

 this swarm clusters, where all the bees 

 of the swarm cluster, and soon become 

 perfectly quiet, you may be sure there 

 is a queen with them. And if you 

 want to be sure of them the sooner 

 you hive them the better. I would 

 not wait an hour, nor a half hour, but 



