00 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Unprepared Swarming. 



One of my hybrid colonies swarmed, this 

 year, on the lltli of May, giving a second swarm 

 on the 22d, and a third on the 24th, of the same 

 month. There were no swarms of native bees 

 until near the close of June, and then hut few. 



I had several natural swarms this year, be- 

 fore any preprations had been made in the hive 

 for such an event — not even an egg had been 

 placed in a queen cell. In one case I opened 

 the parent stock nineteen days after the swarm 

 issued, to see whether the young queen had 

 commenced laying, and the first frame I took 

 out contained more than half a dozen queen 

 cells, from one or two of which queens had ap- 

 parently just issued, and from the others they 

 came out within ten minutes. I found cells on 

 other frames in the same condition. The ac- 

 cepted natural history of the honey bee will 

 have to be revised, will it not ? 



I prize the Journal very much. 



W. C. Condit. 



Columbia Centre, Ohio. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Management and Hives. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Impregnation of Young Queens. 



Mr. Editor : — Have you, or has any reader 

 of the Journal, observed the difference in time 

 in the impregnation of young queens from dif- 

 ferent mothers ; some almost invariably run- 

 ning four or five weeks after they are hatched 

 out, before you find brood in the hive, and 

 others only three or four days ? I have ob- 

 served such through four generations. Is this 

 a rule, or only an accidental coincidence ? Or 

 do bees, like other stock, transmit their good or 

 bad points ? 



As artificial swarming gives complete control 

 over the production of either queens or drones, 

 so that you can raise either from such mothers 

 as you wish; and if by further experiment, this 

 is found to be tlie rule, and Kohler's process 

 for securing the impregnation of queens by such 

 drones as you select, is successful, it will he of 

 benefit to those who desire to improve their 

 bees — especially to those who would like to se- 

 cure a rapid iucrease of their colonies. Will 

 those of your correspondents who may have 

 experimented, give their experience ? 



John M. Price. 



Buffalo Grove, Iowa. 



Sublette, III., June 29. 

 The season here is very poor for bees, thus 

 far, in Lee county. They have not been ahle to 

 make a living until last week. No natural 

 swarms yet. J. Vandervoort. 



M Eugene Thirion, of Venezuela, sent to 

 the Paas exposition a nest of a species of honey 

 gathering wasp, Vespa mellifera. May not this 

 insect be identical with the Mexican honey 

 hornet ? 



Mr. Editor: — I have just read Mr. Gallup 1 s 

 article on bee management and ventilation, in 

 the July number — which I like, and hope he 

 will give us more of his experience and experi- 

 ments, with details. 



Although the management of bees must vary 

 with different persons, seasons, and localities, 

 still proper management is more than half the 

 battle, in the prosperity of the bees and the 

 amount of surplus honey obtained. Mr. Gal- 

 lup's long experience, and the many experi- 

 ments he has made are of great benefit to new 

 beginners. Yet all may not come to the same 

 conclusion from the same experiment ; and an 

 experiment that may be successful with one 

 man, or in a different locality, might not be so 

 in others. 



I would suggest that he communicate his 

 way of getting the most surplus honey from 

 every swarm of bees wintered through in good 

 condition, if in non-swarming, swarming, or by 

 the most rapid increase. My experience is to 

 increase from one to ten, and in the fall, as 

 soon as the honey harvest is over, take up all 

 that you do not want to winter. Last year the 

 ten swarms averaged thirty-five pounds each. 

 I am trying it again this summer, and the pros- 

 pect now is that, they will do better this year 

 than last, and by the use of the honey-emptying 

 machine, I think the product can be doubled 

 next year. 



I use a double hive, with two movable divi- 

 sion boards for die inside covers of the hive to 

 rest on, which are moved towards or from each 

 other, according to the size of the swarm, and 

 thus make the capacity of the hive from one to 

 seventeen frames, oue foot square. 



To make my artificial swarms this spring, 

 two old stocks furnished brood enough to make 

 one new one every week since the first of June. 

 I took eighty frames of brood, one foot square, 

 from four hives in one month. 



The question was asked in a back number, 

 whether queens could be introduced by putting 

 the queen on a frame in an empty hive, and 

 that placed on the stand of another swarm, if 

 the bees would receive her. I have had the 

 chance to try it several times lately. In de- 

 stroying queen cells occasionally there would 

 be a live one in it. I have introduced four 

 from that source, every one of which was suc- 

 cessful, and is doing well. 



The honey harvest has been very good so 

 far ; white clover being very abundant. 



John M. Price. 



Buffalo Grove, Iowa, July 12, 1868. 



The opinion that stolen bees will not thrive, 

 but pine away and die, is said to be almost uni- 

 versal among the peasantry in England. 



The honey bee is an excellent botanist, a 

 first-rate mathematician, and a rigid economist. 



