524 



a large apiary cannot be excelled ; close to 

 the borders, between Kentucky and Tennes- 

 see. The profits, if any, for the first year 

 could be judiciously expended in further 

 improvements. 



An institution of this kind, where so 

 many would be interested, each shareholder 

 a customer, and each soliciting the patron- 

 age of their friends, with the endorsement 

 and influence of the North American Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, or National Conven- 

 tion, conducted on right principles with 

 good management, it could hardly fail to 

 pay a handsome dividend, and at the same 

 time be an establishment which all Ameri- 

 can bee-keepers would eventually be proud 

 of. Some may think it would injure our 

 private business, but I cannot think so. I 

 am led to believe that such an institution 

 would rather tend to stimulate the whole 

 bee-keeping interests and place our occupa- 

 tion in that dignified position the profession 

 deserves. And it might be in a few years, 

 that many young men who are seeking light 

 and profitable employment, would gladly 

 avail themselves of a course of instruction 

 in apiculture at the National Apiary and 

 Queen-Rearing Establishment. 



Proper safeguards should be provided to 

 protect the interests of every shareholder 

 equally, and such officers elected that will 

 guarantee the enterprise a success from the 

 beginning, viz : President, one Vice-Presi- 

 dent from each State represented, a Board 

 of Directors, Secretary, Treasurer, and 

 Superintendent. The latter to make a 

 monthly report, to be published in the 

 American Bee Journal. 



It is unnecessary at present to enter into 

 further details. I offer the crude sugges- 

 tions, for what they are worth, my object 

 being to call the attention of the North 

 American Bee-Keepers' Association to the 

 propriety, or impropriety, of organizing a 

 National Apiary and Queen-Rearing Estab- 

 lishment. W. Williamson. 



Lexington, Ky. 



James Heddon, Mich., said he was 

 decidedly in favor of the project, and 

 would at once nominate himself for 

 Superintendent with a salary of $2,500 

 a year. He would be willing to guar- 

 antee that there would be no honey 

 raised. It should be located at Petos- 

 key. 



The Secretary read an essay entitled 



How to Prevent Swarming. 



For several years we have had as many 

 colonies of bees as we wished, but never 

 enough honey. Therefore, our attention 

 has been directed to how to prevent increase 

 of bees and turn this over-production of 

 colonies into augumenting the tons of sur- 

 plus honey. Bear in mind that the direc- 

 tions I shall give are suitable for our loca- 

 tion, and not for all places. 



I do not stimulate in spring by feeding 

 either in or out of the hive, for by such I 

 would defeat the objects I have in view, 

 viz : less increase and more honey ; for by 

 artificial stimulating Lcause my hives to be 

 over-crowded, and in consequence iiave an 

 increase of swarms to provide hives and 



surplus arrangements for, and but little or 

 no honey from the old or new colonies. 



Come with me (in your imagination) 

 about the 15th of March to "Sweet Home" 

 apiary; you see my hives have just been 

 placed on their summer stands ; they are 

 double-portico Langstroth hives, having an 

 entrance at each end ; the back entrance is 

 entirely closed by one piece of wood, the 

 front is nearly closed by two blocks. As 

 soon as I find a colony strong enough to 

 cluster outside I remove one-block from the 

 front entrance, and repeat the same with 

 the remaining front entrance block when 

 necessary, and also with the back entrance 

 block, thereby securing good ventilation 

 and preventing in a great measure the hive 

 from being overheated. 



As warm weather approaches and the hot 

 sun of summer causes the bees to still 

 cluster outside, although both entrances are 

 open, it becomes necessary that the hives 

 should be shaded. 



By giving plenty of surplus room for the 

 storing of honey, and by extracting often 

 enough from those hives we run for extracted 

 honey, will keep them almost entirely from 

 swarming. To give plenty of surplus room 

 in those hives run for comb-honey is not so 

 readily done. To accomplish this we use 

 a double-portico Langstroth hive, which 

 gives us room for four boxes of seven prize 

 sections each, or 28 sections in all, holding 

 about 42 pounds where tin separators are 

 used. These sections have each a piece of 

 foundation used as a guide and induce- 

 ment to work in the box ; as a still greater 

 and earlier inducement, we put in the cen- 

 ter of each box one section filled, or nearly 

 so, with comb, from which we have ex 

 tracted the honey the previous fall. In 

 these sections we wish to give them working 

 room at all times to cluster, build comb and 

 store honey that the brood combs may not 

 be crowded with honey. As fast as these 

 sections are filled and finished, they should 

 be taken off and their places filled with 

 empty ones. 



By using worker-foundation and cutting 

 out drone comb, we prevent the over-pro- 

 duction of drones ; this excessive supply of 

 drones we believe causes much of the 

 swarming fever. We will reiterate what 

 we said years ago in the American Bee 

 Journal, that a hive in which there is no 

 drone comb to raise drones will not swarm. 



To sum up in brief, ventilate, shade, give 

 plenty of surplus room and raise no more 

 drones than you need, and those few from 

 choice colonies. 



But in spite of all these precautions, we 

 will have many swarms ; to make these as 

 few as possible with the least labor, we put 

 the first swarm in a new hive, for so far we 

 have found it useless to return the first 

 swarm. We then mark on the slate (of 

 which we are the inventor) of the old hive 

 '"79, June 15, sw'd." On the slate of the 

 new hive we put "'79, June 15, sw." In 

 from 5 to 10 days afterwards we have a 

 second swarm. While the bees are cluster- 

 ing we pinch all the queen-cells and then 

 return the swarm, thereby putting an end to 

 all swarming of that hive for the present. 



You will see the use of the slate as a 

 register in swarming, when the first swarm 



