Vol. X 



APRIL, 1900 



No. 4 



NON-SWARMING EXPERIMENTS. 



Reply to Mr. Doolittle's Request for 

 Information. 



BY •SWAKTHMOUE.'" 



THAT master boe-keeper, Doolittle, 

 having done mo the honor to review 

 my notes in a recent issue of The 

 Bee-keeper, I now venture a reply with 

 fear and tremblinj^': 



Mr. Doolittle asks why I do nut •'turn 

 the old queen back onto the eight or 

 nine combs again, by quietly removing 

 the zinc, instead of removing the frame 

 and introducing a young queen or a ripe 

 cell," in the method spoken of to pre- 

 vent swarming? 



I remove the old queen for the reason 

 that should she be allowed to run at 

 large again on the combs of that hive 

 the bees would soon prepare to swarm: 

 when, if a young queen or a cell is in- 

 troduced instead, there will be little 

 danger of a swarm from that colony at 

 all that year. Then besides, bees are 

 apt to work harder with a fresh young 

 queen present — witli nu;, they are es- 

 pecially active soon after the makings 

 of a new queen are given them. Then 

 again, the honey caught in the frames 

 is sooner boosted up into the boxes when 

 a young queen needs room for her eggs. 



I have never destroyed a good queen, 

 even if past two years of age, for the 

 reason that I consider it a bit of extrav- 

 agance to do so and an act of heartless- 



n' ss to end the life of any passable 

 cueen. But, on the other hand. I would 

 pinch her in a jiffy if she should happen 

 to show the slightest symptoms of 

 failing. 



In a colony of moderate strength a 

 two-year-old can do no harm providing 

 she c;jntinues a prolific layer and does 

 not produce too many drones, therefore 

 I keep my older queens in colonies of 

 moderate strength and draw on them 

 often for brood and bees to augment the 

 strength of my actuai working colonies. 

 I never disturb the internal arrange- 

 ments of my working colonies (having 

 young queens) so long as external ap- 

 pearances are satisfactory to me. 



It is certainly folly to go to all the 

 trouble and expense of equipping 

 colonies of only moderate strringth with 

 honey bees; the bees will seldom occupy 

 them with a will. It is far b,'tter to 

 work half the number of hives in double 

 strength than double the number in half 

 string,! h. By the first-named plan the 

 labor is lessened and the honey is in- 

 creased, both in quantity and quality of 

 finish — half-filled boxes reduced to a 

 more pleasing small number. 



If by any plan the apiarist can take 

 from two good sized colonies the entire 

 working force of each and throw tiie 

 bees together directly into one set of 

 honey boxes, just at the opening of the 

 flow, the result will be amazing! 



The U. D. system provides for Mic 



