305 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Swarming, Wintering, etc. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



I have carefully read and re-read the 

 able articles on these subjects by Messrs. 

 Dadant and Doolittle. I call them able, 

 because they coincide with my ideas, 

 experience and management, to a great 

 extent, and I mean by able that which is 

 true to nature, and of course I think I 

 am on the right track, or I should get on 

 another immediately. There are a few 

 points, however, in each of these arti- 

 cles that I wish to look after a little, 

 and state where these gentlemen would 

 be wrong, in my locality. 



Should we cut out all our drone comb, 

 as Mr. Doolittle suggests, our bees 

 would cut away worker comb, and 

 rebuild the space with drone-sized cells. 

 If Mr. D."s bees will not do this, he 

 should soon be through his June prun- 

 ing. My plan for keeping up my blood, 

 is to cut off the heads or pupa drones 

 that are of bad traits (not rings), and 

 keep less drone combs in the least desira- 

 ble colonies, and more in those of 

 choicest habits. Poor colonies soon be- 

 come so scarce that but little labor is 

 required to doctor them so as to pre- 

 vent their increasing their kind. 



I have tried the plan of artificial 

 swarming (just this one that Mr. D. 

 prefers), but I have 3 objections to it : 



1st. At any time after dividing is ad- 

 missable, if we put a whole working 

 force into an empty set of combs, the 

 bees desert the boxes placed thereon, 

 and fill the combs with honey, crowding- 

 out the queen. This is just when we 

 have no time or desire to "extract." 

 We, like Mr. D., are after comb honey, 

 and are very busy. We can get more 

 box honey without these combs than 

 with them ; more extracted honey with 

 them. 



2d. Natural swarms work with an in- 

 spiration and satisfied air that is pleas- 

 ant to see and profitable to enjoy that no 

 other system of increase can boast of. 



3d. Natural swarms are not near as 

 liable to re-swarm as artificial ones. I 

 suspect that the queen considers a wing 

 exercise, at least once a year, her legiti- 

 mate right. 



Mr. Dadant says about what I have 

 thought to be true, that "uneasiness 

 and dissatisfaction' 1 are the causes of 

 swarming. 



Where there is much swarming done 

 by the same season's swarms, you will 

 notice that those colonies re-swarm 

 much more that have clipped queens. 

 The workers evidently are jealous of 

 them, or are, to say the least, "dissatis- 



fied" with only a fraction of a mother, 

 be it ever so much of a majority. I 

 agree with Mr. Doolittle in regard to 

 small hives, and cut my 10-frame Lang- 

 stroth hives down to 8 frames 4 years ago. 



It is hardly possible to lay down any 

 fixed system of management that will 

 work equally well in all localities. Hon. 

 Geo. E. Steele, of northern Michigan, 

 who recently visited us, says that prop- 

 olis is gathered in such quantities there 

 that it is almost impossible to use boxes 

 within frames. So it will prove to be 

 with many other arrangements and 

 principles. 



Who will be the first to devise some 

 cheap method, that is off-hand, reliable 

 and practicable, to run a half dozen 

 apiaries, with no loss from unattended 

 swarming ? 



WINTERING 



is again agitating the pages of the 

 placid old American Bee Journal. 

 From my experience with this "cholera" 

 or intestinal winter disease, it sounds 

 to me simply ridiculous to hear men 

 talk about their "great neglect and con- 

 sequent loss ;" " bees too damp ;" " too 

 cold;" "were housed;" "were not 

 housed," etc. I will now give you a 

 statement very close to the exact facts, 

 as to how bees wintered within 6 miles 

 of this place : 



J. V., 4 miles south, in the fall had 21 

 colonies left carelessly on the summer 

 stands ; 19 came through all right, 2 

 died from lack of stores ; no cholera. 



A. H.j 6 miles southwest, had about 

 20 colonies in plastered bee-house, above 

 ground and above freezing ; loss over 

 one-half. 



Mr. H., 2 miles from A. H., had about 

 16 colonies ; uncared for entirely ; no 

 loss and no disease. 



Mr. A., 4 miles southwest, had about 

 40 in special repository above ground ; 

 loss nearly one-half. 



Mr. S. M., southwest 7 miles, had 15 

 colonies ; no care ; lost 12 of them. 



E. C, 2 miles west, lost over one-half ; 

 all were packed with straw and chaff. 



T. E., 6 miles northwest, had 12 colo- 

 nies ; lost 2 from lack of stores ; no dis- 

 ease, and no care at all. 



J. H., 4 miles north, had about 40 

 colonies ; 5 or 8 alive ; no care. 



Mr. C, 4 miles northwest, had 15 colo- 

 nies packed, or protected with corn- 

 stalks (I cannot ascertain which) ; lost 

 14 of them . 



Mr. D., of this place, had about 20 

 colonies (black bees) ; lost all but 1 or 2; 

 part were packed, and part in cellar. 



A gentleman about 40 miles north, 

 packed 94 colonies scientifically in 

 " chaff ;" all but 2 were dead long ago, 

 and how those are coining on I cannot 



