128 



THE AMERICAN APICUL TURIS T. 



It is important that honey be placed 

 within tlie reach of every possible pur- 

 chaser. A Uixury lil^e honey will not be 

 sounht afar. Let no one think he does the 

 cause a service wiien he counsels tiie pro- 

 scription of the <>rocer and tlie commission 

 merchant. No hand ready to help should 

 be allowed to be idle. Everyone will reach 

 some whom no one else could. With honey 

 judiciously displayed in every city, vil- 

 lage and hamlet in our country the har- 

 vest would truly be great. 



Lapeer, Mich. 



Prevention of Increase. 



p. H. Elwood. 



He who allows his bees to increase by 

 natural swarming at their own good pleas- 

 ure may be called a beekeeper; but it is 

 only he who has learned to control in- 

 crease, making it much, or little, or none 

 at all, as circumstances may direct, that 

 has earned the title of bee-n)asler. It is 

 often well to know how to run a yard of 

 bees without making any incrense. When 

 the beekeeper has already more colonies 

 than he Ciin niannge, it would seem foolish 

 to make more unless he has a good market 

 for bees. Quite often, when his locality 

 is already overstocked, he finds it is his 

 neighbors only who wish to buy and at a 

 price that barely repays him for founda- 

 tion and hives. Sometimes a person 

 could profitably keep one yard in connec- 

 tion with some other business if he knew 

 how to manage them without increase and 

 with the least expenditure of time and 

 work; the tiu)e and work to be chiefly 

 given when tiie beekeeper can best spare 

 it and not at the call of the bees. This 

 method of running one yard with some 

 other occupation and the minimum an)oHnt 

 of w©rk and expense may be the practice 

 of the future, one strong argument 

 against beekeeping as a specialty being 

 the uncertain value of the business when 

 carried to a forced sale by the death of 

 the beekeeper and the consequent uncer- 

 tain provision for his family. Then an- 

 other very large class are now producing 

 honey at a gi-eater cost than the selling 

 price and it would be unwise to enlarge a 

 business already conducted at a loss. 

 And it is always better to have the con- 

 trol of increase like everything else, well 

 in hiind and under well-laid plans, then a 

 sullieicnt number of hives amlsupplies can 

 be secured with some reasonable expecta- 

 tion of having them all used and yet have 



enough in those years in which bees when 

 left to themselves often swarm to death. 



When running bees to extracted honey 

 it is comparatively easy to control swarm- 

 ing; for by giving them a large amount of 

 room for both brood and honey, and ex- 

 tracting the old honey and afterward the 

 new just before the main flow commences 

 (as ought to be done in any case as it is of 

 inferior quality) there will usually be no 

 attempt to swarm; with reasonable at- 

 tention to exti'acting afterward. This 

 method is simple and it would be well if 

 beginners would stick to the extractor 

 until they are successful with box honey 

 management. When box honey is raised 

 it is much more diflicnlt to control in- 

 crease. It is easy in a swarming year to 

 raise a crop of swarms but not so easy to 

 raise a crop of comb honey. The well- 

 filled brood-nest so necessary to the suc- 

 cessful production of comb honey is also 

 very favorable to the forcing out of 

 swarms. A lai'ge hive well shaded and 

 ventilated, with plenty of room in both 

 bi'ood and surplus apartments, will retard 

 and sometimes prevent the issue of swarms 

 but there is no certainty about it and it is 

 better to have swarms issue earlier than in 

 the niidiUeof the honey harvest as is apt to 

 be the case with large hives. Cutting out 

 queen cells, the withdrawal of brood, and 

 tiie management of the brood-chamber as 

 reconnnended by Mr. Simmins, will also 

 delay but not prevent swarming, while 

 there is danger of throwing the colony 

 into a condition known as having the 

 swarming fever. In this state work to a 

 large degree will he suspended and the 

 bees show by unmistakable signs that 

 they are dissatisfied. Many bee swill de- 

 sert their own hives and enter others 

 which seems to disnflect these also. The 

 beekeeper will be similarly attected when 

 in the midst of a honey flow lie comes to 

 look into the surplus receptacles or to no- 

 tice the number of idle bees hanging about 

 the hives. It is only strong swarms that 

 produce box honey satisfactorily and no 

 system of management will be successful 

 uidess the colonies are built up strong be- 

 fore the harvest. This is particularly true 

 of the method 1 am about to describe. 



1 reconunend the clii)ping of queens' 

 wings, believing it to be the best. There 

 is then no loss of unexpected swarms and 

 no swarms to be hived from inaccessible 

 places. Ill every apiary tliere are some 

 colonies, in some seasons a majorit}', that 

 will work right along witiiout any attempt 

 to swarm. When no increase is desireil 

 there is no need of molesting them as they 

 usually i)r()duce their full sliarci of comb 

 honey. All otlii'r colonies as they com- 

 plete their prei)aralious for swarming 



