May 3, 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



383 



had no experience in transferring, I decided to operate on one only, 

 and let the other swarm naturally. I made Cj 8-frame hives and filled 

 them with full sheets of comb foundation, and on May (J I proceeded 

 to transfer the one according to directions. I succeeded in gettiug 

 about one-half or two-thirds of the bees and the queen into the new 

 hive, and placed them on the old stand. I intended, on the 21st day 

 afterward, to drive out the remaining bees and form another colony 

 by giving them a queen; but the bees got the 6tart of me by turning 

 out a swarm on the ISth day after transferring. I hived this swarm 

 and placed it on a new stand. I decided then to drive out the remain- 

 ing bees on the 21st day, unite them with one of the new colonies, and 

 break up the old one, but to my surprise, on that very day, and while 

 I was getting the smoker ready, the old colony turned out another 

 swarm. I hived it and placed it also on a new stand. With the swarm 

 I forced on May 6 this was the third one, and only May 27. I sup- 

 posed that now the old colony was "done for;" but to my surprise 

 that evening, when I looked into it, I found quite a few bees remain- 

 ing in the old hive, and brood, both capped and uncapped. There is 

 no mistake about these 2 swarms issuing from the old colony. I saw 

 them coming out of the hive in both instances. 



I now moved the old colony to a new stand several rods to one 

 side. It grew in strength rapidly, so that on June 22 I forced another 

 swarm from it, placed the new swarm on the old etand, and removed 

 the old box-hive still further to one side. 



The colony in the old Langstroth hive which I let swarm naturally, 

 turned out its prime swarm June 23. It was a large swarm that com- 

 pletely tilled an 8-frame hive. It filled 4 supers of 24 sections each in 4 

 successive weeks, and altogether Ills sections. I made an exhibit of 

 this prime swarm's surplus honey at the Fair, and took the 1st premium 

 on comb honey. This old colony turned out 2 after-swarms which I 

 hived on full sheets of foundation. 



I increased from 2 colonies to 9. and got 350 pounds of surplus 

 honey. I got all the surplus from the new colonies excepting 24 sec- 

 tions from the colony I let swarm naturally. 



My new hives weigh 26 pounds each without the supers. On the 

 first day of December I weighed all the colonies and put the youDg 

 colonies into the cellar, and wintered the 2 old ones on the summer 

 stands. The young colonies weighed from 05 to 75 pounds each with- 

 out the supers on, and the old colony that I tried to break up weighed 

 110, and the other 00 pounds. 



I prepared them for winter by wrapping old carpets about them 

 and setting a large shock of bundles of cornfodder around them, well 

 tied together at the top. They have wintered *rell, both outdoors and 

 in the cellar. 



Estimating my surplus and increase on the spring count, which 

 seems to be the rule, 1 got an average of 175 pounds per colony, and 

 350 percent increase. I didn't feed a drop in the fall, nor do I need 

 to do so this spring, unless it is to stimulate brood rearing. 



The person in the picture is myself, and the hive next to me is the 

 colony I let swarm naturally. The second colony from the left is the 

 one 1 tried all summer to break up. 



I made 25 hives the past winter, and put the new metal spacer on 

 200 frames. S. L. Mottinger. 



Plaintield. Ills 



* (£ontrtbuteb * 

 Special Ctrticles 



1 



How to Control the Swarming of Bees 



BY H. S. PHILBROOK. 



ON page 299, Mr. Allen Latham criticised Mr. Davenport's 

 article on page 1S5 pretty severely, and closes with say- 

 ing, "I don't believe it." Now, 1 . ay 1 I elieve 

 every word of it, and why I belieye it is because of the many 

 allusions to his discovery. He has outlined a plan which I 

 have been working on for 2 years, and which is so simple 

 and effectual that it is simply astounding it has not been 

 practiced before. 



I do not know what manner of "nan Mr. Davenport is, 

 and can not make out just why he did not publish his dis- 

 covery instead of alluding to it. and not allow people to say, 

 "What does he want?" 



My views on the subject are simply these: If a man 

 profits by reading the experiences of others in any journal. 

 and should make any discovery that might help others in the 

 pursuit, it immediately becomes his duty, and should be a 

 great pleasure to be able, to return those profits by publish- 

 ing his own discoveries. 



Now, the reason I have not written of this system of 

 control of swarming sooner is, that I do not believe in rush- 

 ing anything into print until one is sure of what he says; hut 

 it is working so beautifully again this year that I feel free 

 to give the plan to the bee-keeping world, and let them pull 

 it to pieces and commend or condemn it, as only circum- 

 stances and time will tell which. 



First, and most important, I will say wc all know what 



causes swarming is an ■ 1-chamber. and this 



is what suggested my plan i It is simply this: 



Start a m d with the old one and yet 



separated by a queen-excluding inc horn y-board. To do this, 

 place a hive full of frames wi lation, or emp 



beneath the old brood-chamber, and either put the queen 

 below on the empties, or lal i the entire lot of bees out of 



the old bt 1 chamber on thi ground and let them, together 



with the queen, crawl back into careful to place 



the honey-board neatly between the new and the old chamber. 

 Thus there is no chilled brood, as the main lot of bees will 

 go through the honey-hoard and attend to it. while the sur- 

 plus bees will attend to matters in the new one, and they 

 old with the vim and vigor of a new swarm. Now, if 

 cells an- :ealed in thi >d chamber, they must be re 



moved before the young queen emerges, or you are liable to 

 get a drone-laying queen in the super, unless it has an open 

 entrance. 



The bees will not disturb the qmcn-cells themselves, as 

 we all know the cells are readily accepted above a honey- 

 board. Yet they do not mind in the least if those cells are 

 removed, and it is just so with bees treated in the manner 

 I speak of. Now. when the lower chamber is full of brood, 

 the upper one will almi and they can he 



exchanged, always keeping the queen below. It has « 

 beautifully with me. and ' n me absolute control of 



swarming, and always kept up vim and vigor in the colonj 



This also admits oi 

 to make it. by taking away tli i 1 brood-ch mb . and sup- 

 plying a young laying queen, or a virgin, or allow them to 

 hatch their own cells. And now, connected with this 

 tern, it becomes very convenient to be able to find "her 

 highness." and thus bother of -baking out the 



swarm. I have a little device for this trick, which wil 

 her in 2 minuti -. no diffi n i i how large and p ipulous the 

 is, or whether she is black, Italian, or Cyprian, or what 

 her make-up. she can not resist going where she is wanted, 

 and readily becomes a captive. I will > in my 



next article. 



My bees have a very strong strain of Cyp i; I. and 



yet this system of controlling swarming has never failed me, 

 which speaks well for it. 



Now, for those wdio do not use the honey-boards, on 

 account of not liking them. I will explain a little trick to 



■ all drones either in tl e egg or larva, or in 

 of unsealed form, although pur b xl books all say, "Let them 

 alone until sealed and then cut them off." My trick is just 

 to sprinkle a little sulphur on them in the cell, and in 20 

 minutes the bees will have them all out in the front door- 

 yard and scattered far and near. A large -alt-cellar is very 

 convenient for this purpose. 



If Mr. Davenport has a better system for controlling 

 swarming, I am sure we will all be glad to hear from him, 

 and through the columns of tl m rican Bee Journal let 



us give as well as receive. I know the Journal is a very 

 great help to any bee-keeper, and any and .very bee-keeper 

 should try to be a help to his chosen journals. But let us 

 not write of things we are not sure of. 



And let me say here, that I have no! yel seen any more 

 of bee-paralysis this year, and believe I am entirely free of it. 



Oxnard. Calif. April IS. 







A Great Moth Fight-" Good Candy" 



BY. PROF. V J. COOK. 



THERE is now going on in the eastern half of the Bay 

 State a momentous battle, the outcome of which con- 

 cerns not only Massachusetts people, but all of us. The 

 bee-keeper is specially interested, for the fate of the parks, 

 forests, shade trees, and orchards is pending, and with these 

 wiped out our bee-forage would be materially lessened. This 

 is most serious, for unless the threatening evil is stayed in 

 its onward march, the whole State of Masachusetts and other 

 States will soon be invaded, greatly to our country's loss. 



The Enemy — Two Moths. 



This alarming evil is caused by two moths — one the 

 Gypsy, of which we have heard for several yeai and the 

 other the Brown-tail, so-called, as the tip of the body is red 

 or brown, though the moth is pure white. Both of these 

 moths come from Europe, and are recent importations. The 

 first devastates all kinds of trees, even evergreens or conifers, 

 and stops not at garden vegetables. Its devastations are often 

 absolute, and so the threatened mischief is enormous in ex- 



