1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



39 



certain of it, and I want nothing in the Journal 

 but what the writers are positively certain of. I 

 have not attempted to control the, fertilization 

 ofbut one queen this season, and that was as fol- 

 lows : About two o'clock, June 18th, I picked 

 up a fine large queen about twelve days old, 

 surrounded by a handful of bees. I found the 

 hive she came out of, her wings were defective 

 and she could not fly. I had a few days before 

 read Waite's plan, and so run in the room to 

 get just such a wire cage or cylinder as he de- 

 scribes. By the way, I have all such devices by 

 me, showing that I have left no stone unturned 

 to succeed, if that could ever be done. 



Well, I put the queen with six well selected 

 drones just leaving the hive — not returning to it 

 — and set it in the sun, leaving it at least two 

 hours. Waite says one. When I went to it 

 there was at least a quart of bees hanging over 

 it, and a great many drones. I then took it with 

 all the bees hanging to it and set it at the en- 

 trance of a weak and queenless nucleus, to which 

 J gave queen and bees late in the evening. Five 

 days after she was laying regular in worker 

 combs. Whether she met with the drone in the 

 cage or before I put her in, or whether she met 

 with a drone at all, I do not know, but rather 

 think she has from the regularity of the brood 

 and eggs. I will tell you all in the next num- 

 ber of the Journal. I had a case similar last 

 August in which a defective winged queen that 

 coidd not fly, did actually manage to become im- 

 pregnated, but this queen was removed by the 

 bees in March. 



Well, friend Salisbury, you went to a cost of 

 $30, to put up your Fertilizing Tent, but you 

 are not the only man, for a great many others 

 did the same. Please send in your report of 

 hone*t failures, for they are nothing else. But 

 should you report contrary to all expectations, 

 success, I will immediately jump on the train and 

 go with all speed and meet friend Furman and 

 Novice in your tent, and will then describe the 

 plan of the tent I had devised to build in the 

 spring, and I think that if success is ever met 

 with, it would have been by my plan as the most 

 natural and least troublesome. My plan is as 

 follows : 



Make the base of boai'ds about say ten feet 

 square. I intended mine to be at least five feet 

 high, with a pole in the centre to hold up the top 

 of the tent, which I intended should be about 

 ten by twelve feet higher from the top of the 

 wood work, making altogether about twenty feet 

 from the ground. Around this tent, just outside, 

 I intended to set twelve nuclei, three on each 

 side, with the main entrances outside, but an 

 entrance at the rear end of each, passing into the 

 tent for the queen and drones. When the queen 

 was two or three days old, the front entrance was 

 to be adjusted so that only the workers could 

 pass out, but an entrance at the rear end of each 

 passing into the tent for the queen and drones. 

 Should there be objections to a rear entrance, the 

 front entrance could be placed against the tent 

 and so adjusted that the queen and drones could 

 only pass into the tent. The entrance to each 

 nucleus was to be marked with different colors, 

 so each queen would find her way back. But 



whether the drones would ever find their way 

 back from the tent, and whether the workers 

 that should happen to pass into the tent would 

 not get bewildered and lost, is what bothered 

 me. Will some one who has built a tent try the 

 plan, as it is the most natural of any I have ever 

 yet seen described. I have not sufficient faith 

 left in regard to " Controlling Fertilization" to 

 try it myself. 



The queen and drones may think themselves 

 in a very unnatural position inside the tent. I 

 am as anxious as any one is to see some one suc- 

 ceed, but before they patent it and trumpet it 

 about over the country, I want them to be posi- 

 tively certain they are not deceived, and thus de- 

 ceiving beekeepers. This is what we should all 

 guard against. 



R. M. Argo. 



Lowell, Ky., July 12, 1872. 



[Translated from Kleine's Centrab'att.] 



A Simple Method of Suppressing Afterswarms. 



At the meeting of the Apiarian Association at 

 Knesbeck, November 22d, 1871, the following 

 question was offered for debate : What is the 

 best way of preventing immoderate afterswarms ? 



The future prosperity is in many cases endan- 

 gered by too much swarming, unless the bee- 

 keeper returns to it the requisite bees. It ap- 

 pears to me far simpler and better should the 

 beekeeper prevent the departure of the swarms. 

 My plan to accomplish this is not difficult, and 

 never failed me in about 28 years, during which 

 time I have had it in operation. 



So soon as the young queens have sung for 

 three evenings, you may expect that on the 

 fourth day a swarm will leave. The parent stock, 

 which should not swarm again, on the third 

 night of this singing, after the bees have stopped 

 flying, raised from its bottom board and placed 

 on two equal circular blocks, which have a 

 diameter of two inches, so placed as to allow the 

 free ingress of the cool night air. Generally, on 

 the following morning, all the surplus queens 

 will be found upon the bottom board. Are they 

 not found there, it is a sign that the swarm is not 

 yet ready to leave, and that there is no danger 

 of their leaving that day. Before the bees begin 

 to fly, the two blocks must be removed, and the 

 hive resume its position on the bottom board. 



My treatment has always shown itself to be 

 an unfailing remedy, especially in large straw 

 hives, where the fly-hole is at the bottom. I 

 consider it much easier and safer than that of 

 cutting out superfluous cells. I base the success 

 of my method on the present internal condition 

 of the young queens and their protecting bees. 

 Lastly, they surround in parties their chosen 

 queen as a necessary defence against the other 

 opposing divisions. 



Through opening of the hive from beneath, 

 and perhaps through the entrance of the cool 

 night air, is this guard system destroyed and the 

 killing of the queens follows. This will occur 

 only on the day when the swarm intends to lake 

 its departure. The cold draft may operate on the 



