June 21, 1906 



533 



American Itee Journal 



f Convention 

 Proceeding 



NATIONAL AT CHICAGO 



Report of the 36th Annual Convention of the 



National Bee-Keepers' Association, held in 



Chicago, 111., Dec. 19, 20 and 21, 1905 



The National Bee-Keepers' Association held its Annual 

 Convention in Brunt Hall in the Bush Temple of Music, 

 Chicago, 111., on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, De- 

 cember 19, 20 and 21, 1905. 



The opening session took place on Tuesday, December 

 19, at 7 :30 o'clock p. m. ; the President-elect, Mr. C. P. 

 Dadant, of Hamilton, 111., occupied the chair. 



The Secretary, Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, read a paper 

 written by Mr. L. Stachclhausen, of Converse, Texas, on 



THE CONTROL OF INCREASE 



The natural way of increase is swarming, and, there- 

 fore, the first problem is control of swarming, and this is 

 very important for bee-keepers who keep a large number of 

 colonies in several apiaries. As we have no man in the 

 out-yards to watch for swarms, and as it would not pay 

 at all to keep such a person there during swarming-time, 

 every swarm cast by any colony would be very probably 

 lost. 



I am tempted to give you a scientific talk about the 

 cause of swarming, but I think you prefer more practical 

 hints. We know a number of ways to prevent swarming; 

 one of the most practical ways to prevent, or, at least, to 

 delay swarming, is to use large hives; that is, a large 

 comb-surface, by which the bees can extend the brood-nest 

 in every direction. At the same time colonies in such large 

 hives will develop faster during the spring, and become 

 stronger colonies. We can force such a development in 

 smaller hives by spreading the brood and other laborious 

 and dangerous manipulations. In a large hive with plenty 

 of honey a healthy colony will develop to the greatest 

 possible strength without any manipulation made by the 

 bee-keeper. 



It may be said that such large hives do not always, 

 and under all circumstances, prevent swarming. This is 

 true, but I have observed, if, in an apiary, io-frame Lang- 

 Stroth hives are changed to larger ones, the bees will 

 swarm less by and by every year. In my locality the 

 bees from hives not larger than 8 or 10 Langstroth frames 

 will swarm so much that one man could hardly manage an 

 apiary of ioo colonies. I could tell you stories about the 

 ways some of my bee-keeping neighbors acted to get rid 

 of these surplus swarms. For about 24 years I have used 

 larger hives, and have no trouble of this kind any more. 

 This is a very important difference, if bees shall be kept 

 in as many colonies to make a profit-bearing business. 



In my locality the problem is to keep the bees from 

 swarming till the main honey-flow commences. During this 

 flow the bees will not swarm, if they have not made prep- 

 arations for it before this flow commenced. With such cir- 

 cumstances, hives as large as the Dadant hive will prevent 

 swarming sufficiently in most years. In other years, which 

 are more favorable for brood-rearing, I have to watch my 

 colonies more carefully. If I find a very strong colony with 

 brood much extended, I have to manipulate it, especially if 

 I find queen-cells started. It may be set down as a rule, 

 if we find 2500 square inches of comb-surface occupied by 

 brood, this colony will probably swarm soon, even from a 

 very large hive. 



The prevention of swarming may have different pur- 

 poses. If we can't, or are not willing, to watch our colonies 

 during swarming-time, we can make the swarms artificially 

 a little earlier; thus they would swarm naturally, but in 

 this case we will get as much, or even more, increase. If 



we want less increase, we make only so many artificial swarms 

 as we think necessary to prevent natural swarms. Or we 

 may not want any increase at all, and wish to keep the 

 whole force of a colony together and have it as strong as 

 possible during the honey-flow. For this reason we have 

 to select different ways for prevention of swarming If we 

 make swarms artificially, we can make one or more swarms 

 from every colony strong enough, or we make one swarm 

 from two such colonies, or we take the material to form 

 a new swarm from a larger number of colonies. All this 

 is done for a permanent increase. A second way is, when 

 no increase is wanted, to divide a strong colony for some 

 days only, and when the swarming fever has past, we unite 

 these two colonies again. A third way is to manpiulate 

 the colony in such a way without dividing it, that it will 

 not or can't swarm. We will consider these three ways. 



There are, again, many different ways of artificial swarm- 

 ing. During many years I used the well-known plan to 

 make three out of two. A strong colony, A, is shaken into a 

 new hive with starters or full sheets of foundation, and this 

 hive is set on the old stand of A. The brood-combs with- 

 out bees are placed in another hive, and this is set on the 

 stand of another strong colony B, and the colony B receives 

 a new stand C. To the colony now at B a queen fertilized, 

 or virgin, or even a queen-cell, is introduced. If the honey- 

 flow is good and of long duration this plan can be used 

 with profit, but the colony at B is in a bad condition for 

 some days, having no young bees to feed the larvae, a part 

 of them may starve and be drawn out afterwards. The 

 colony C has lost all the field-bees, and if the hive does 

 not contain very thin, watery honey, -the young bees can't 

 prepare the necessary larval-food, and some of the young 

 brood is lost again, except we give some water to this 

 colony in some way till some of the young bees will fly out 

 to gather this water outside. 



Since a few years I prefer for these reasons, another 

 plan, especially recommendable if we want very little in- 

 crease. I take from a colony, which I expect would make 

 preparation to swarm, 3 or 4 brood-combs (3 of my frames 

 have not quite as much comb-surface as 2 Langstroth 

 frames). The bees from these combs are shaken back into 

 their hive. In place of these brood-combs empty combs or 

 frames with full sheets of foundation are given to this 

 tolony. Eight of these brood-combs from different colonies 

 are set in another story, and 2 empty combs added; this 

 story is set on top of another strong colony over a queen- 

 excluding honey-board. In this way I go through the yard 

 till all the colonies strong enough are managed. In about 

 2 or 3 hours these brood-combs over the excluders will be 

 covered with young bees, and now I remove them again. 

 Two such stories with brood and bees from 2 different colo- 

 nies will form a new colony, which is placed on a new 

 stand, a queen in a cage closed with candy is introduced, 

 and at the beginning of the honey-flow one or more supers 

 are given to this colony and this bee-yard is safe for 10 

 days, at least. 



The advantage of this plan is, that the colonies are 

 weakened not more than necessary to prevent swarming, and 

 the new colonies are at once ready to store honey. Hereby, 

 it is important that we take mostly capped brood from the 

 colonies, and that we give the frames of foundation at the 

 proper place. Our purpose is that this foundation should 

 be drawn out and eggs laid in these cells at once by the 

 queen, therefore they must be given at such a place, where 

 the queen is laying eggs in the center of the comb, or will 

 soon do so. If we have taken away combs, in which some 

 young bees are gnawing out of the cells, just in the center 

 of these combs, we can put the foundation right in their 

 place, because in a few days the queen would lay eggs there 

 anyhow. If this cannot be done, a safe way is to remove 

 the remaining brood in the old colony close together, and to 

 give the foundation on both sides of the brood-nest be- 

 tween the last brood-comb and that comb containing mostly 

 pollen, which generally is found on both sides of the brood- 

 nest. If this is not observed, and we examine the colony 

 10 days later, we may find these combs filled with honey 

 instead of with brood, and this will be a hindrance for the 

 queen all the summer through. Many other ways of ar- 

 tificial swarming can be used, too many to be mentioned 

 here. 



The second way to prevent swarming is to divide a 

 tolony, which will probably -warm very soon, or has already 



