Dec 6, 1906 



999 



American Ttee Journal 



sidefs." Mine are keyed up <>n but one 

 side. 



He says, "Sections do not fold 

 squarely, and when placed in a super 

 one corner will bob Up, and there is 

 no ua\ nf keeping them down." No way 

 that he knows, of course. I ha 

 waj . "'Springs mi sides will not do it." 

 I have no springs in mine 



"Wedges will not do it." 1- have no 

 wedges for that purpose, either. "A 

 screw, or rather 5 screws, might do it." 

 I have no screws. "These naughty sec- 

 tions give me nil trouble with my wide 

 frame." Neither do mine. 



"The most serious drawback to the 

 T-super lies in the fact, that it must 

 be handled very carefully before being 

 placed on the hive, or it will tumble in 

 pieces." I have no such trouble with 

 mine. I put them together before I put 

 them "ii the hive. Then I can take my 

 arms full and drop them down any way, 

 and they will not come apart. 



"The sections have a way of catching 

 on the tins at the bottom." That is 

 what the tins are for. "The wooden 

 strips between the tops of the sections 

 require a world of patience to replace 

 them when hurrying the work." I have 

 no wooden strips to mine. 



"Dr. Miller's bees have a naughty 

 way of crowding in propolis between 

 the tup bars and tops of the sections, 

 which fact can not be denied." I do 

 deny it in mine, as I have T-tins at the 

 top as well as as at the bottom. 



So there you are. 



I received a leter a few days ago 

 from K. S. Armstrong, of Colorado 

 The correspondence between Dr. Mil- 

 ler and myself in the American Bee 

 Journal stirred him up. lie says he has 

 ly improved his T-super since 1 

 inn- from him (some 20 years ago). 

 II. -till uses the T-tins top and bot- 

 tom, and the button on the side. He 

 is coming up this way this fall, when 

 gets rid of his honey, and he is go- 

 ing in bring both Dr. Miller and me a 

 super, and if we don't say it is the best 

 thing we ever saw. be will miss his 

 lb expects to have about 700 

 cases "f honey. 



Marshall Co.,- Iowa. 



Increase or Prevention 

 Increase— Which? 



BY C. W. DAYTON. 



Of 



.Mr. Grant Stanley, on page 784, re- 

 fers i" my method of treating natural 

 swarms. As Mr. Stanley seems to un- 

 derstand it. it would lie a method for 

 increase by hiving swarms. About 2 

 years ago there was a general call for a 

 method fm" the prevention of increase. 

 All the methods aim to prevent the is- 

 suance of swarms, unless we except the 

 Alexander, and that, in reality, is a 

 method of swarm control by increase. 

 My method of hiving swarms, either 

 singly or numerically, has never been 

 given. 



Some time ago, Mrs. Wilbur Krey, 

 1.1" Michigan, asked for a plan "to keep 

 the apiary together without increase," 

 in- words to that effect. That is a very 

 practical question at the present time, 



and these lew words are suggestive of a 



great deal more than they imply, ["hej 

 suggest that the methods which have 

 been masquerading under prominent 

 headlines and glaring advertisements are 

 lacking in practical utility. They in- 

 variably call fur large expenditure for 

 fixtures, or additional labor. One item 

 Of labor is the capture of queens out of 



very populous colonies. We maj as well 

 be a glass-blower as to be roasted in 

 the open air. 



"Increase." or the "breaking up" of 

 ih, apiary, is one and the same thing. 

 The cause of it all is swarms. Prevent 

 swarms and you prevent both. Taking 

 the working bees out from under sur- 

 plus supers is not the consummation 

 of it. 



The above "talk" sounds considera- 

 bly mixed, doesn't it, while I uphold a 

 method that favors swarming? Well, it 

 is because you have not distinguished 

 that there is a ditlerence between hiv- 

 ing a swarm in a new location, or in a 

 new hive, and returning the bees to 

 their old hive, but in a new or changed 

 condition of mind. To swarm is to is- 

 sue from the hive, but to permit any 

 degree of increase is to intensify the 

 former condition of mind. The change 

 in their minds makes them desire the 

 hives or conditions existent before thej 

 swarmed. \.bout the time we begin to 

 think the hives are about the right full- 

 ness tn store and ripen honey to the 

 best advantage, the bees take a notion 

 iiitn their minds that there are enough 

 bees tu establish another colony and 

 farther replenishment of the earth. It 

 is that part of the swarming act that is 

 included in the law nf creation. Not of 

 mere instinct or environment. Yet. one 

 could mil prosper without the aid of 

 the others. 



There are three principal natural re- 

 quirements fur swarming, namely: An 

 • ilil queen (not necessarily a failing 

 queen); a populous colony; and a go id 

 supply of honey in the flowers Of course, 

 then are many other minor causes, but 

 these ci uiir about by more or less mis- 

 management, and. therefore, are artifi- 

 cial. The 1 inly one of these three prin- 

 cipal causes that can be removed is the 

 queen. How to do this in the easiest 

 and most satisfactory way is all that 

 there is tn lie figured out. Let the 

 swarms bring the queens out. Then 

 pick the queen out by hand, or else 

 drive the bees through a sheet of .per- 

 forated /inc. Then the bees will be 

 likely tn decide that the queen has taken 

 a pint nf bees and "gone to the woods." 

 leaving them behind. Then they will 

 be satisfied tn return to the old domicile 

 and resume their former occupations 

 The old hive is the only "ground" there 

 is to work on, and the bees must be 

 kept in it or there will be no means tn 

 work with. No amount of dodging will 

 assist us over or under the magnitudi- 

 nous obstacle. Off-hand guess-work 

 counts in the wrong direction. The line 

 of influencing particularities is long and 

 varying. Few realize the fact that it is 

 the surplus of bees in the hive that gets 

 us our surplus of honey. 



As for piling up the hive-bodies, one 

 on lop of another, supplied with empty 

 combs or comb-foundation, to separate 



Swarms, as described ml page 784. I 

 would say that the plan is what Mr. 

 Getaz calls "tommy-rot," and Mr. Hasty, 

 "dope." There are a good many persons 

 who have kept bees fur 25 years, and to 

 the extent nf 100 colonies or mure, and 

 still know very little about bees ["hi 1 

 ideas tn accumulating in their 

 heads, and that keeps everything else 



nut. rhej iln nnt want a bee-paper be- 

 cause its teachings run counter tn their 

 nnt inns, and they do not believe what 

 is in the journals because it does not 

 agree with their vague ideas. Any 

 swarm will stay in a box without 

 enmhs. foundation or frames far sooner 

 than with all these supplied. The main 

 reason bees do not fight during a honey- 

 flow is because they are scented with 

 new honey, consequently they would be 

 as one swarm in a short time. The 

 honey scent does not deter them from 

 suiting out the queens, however. They 

 would prefer one of the queens — the 



-1 amiable or queenlike. I could not 



say exactly for what reason. The bees 

 will ball and sting any other, and in 

 three cases nut of four not any of the 

 queens would remain alive. Nearly all 

 queen-breeders will tell you that when 

 they put a dozen or more virgin queens 

 in nursery or retention cages, and put 

 them in a colony to be cared for by the 

 I., es, that the bees will cluster about 

 mi, or two and neglect all the rest 

 The plain statement of this fact can be 

 found on page 25 of Alley's Queen- 

 Rearing, and in W. H. Law's article on 

 Baby Nuclei, in the Bee-Keepers' Re- 

 view in an earlj issue of 1905. What 

 applies in virgins will apply in tin casi 

 nf fertilized queens in instances as 

 abo\ e designated. 



Since the above was written 1 saw Mr. 

 Laws' statement on page 829, which cor- 

 roborates mj statement relative to fer- 

 tilized queens. It is nearly a complete 

 verification nf my statement which Dr. 

 Miller quoted in a "stray straw" in 

 Gleanings for July 1. 1906, "that the 

 size nf the first swarm i- varied a great 

 deal by the amount "f reverence the 

 bees possess for the old queen." It also 

 applies tn swarms having virgin queens. 

 1 could nnt mention better authority 

 mi this question than Mr. Laws. With 

 the correctness of that statement the 

 rest ni mj assertion is nearly, if not 

 quite, self-evident. I would not spend 

 s.i much argument upon this matter, 

 but in my opinion it contains the key 

 to unlock the whole system of swarm 

 management — changing swarming from 

 a "bane" into an enjoyable and profit- 

 able operation. 1 have used the method 

 fur the past 10 or 12 years, and 2 years 

 with 300 colonies, and with days when 

 there were constantly from one to 3 

 swarms in the air. I was interrupted 

 but little from other work nf the apiary, 

 because the bees iln nearly all the labor 

 that I used to do by hand manipulation 

 in former managements. 



As for bee-keepers in general, there 

 1, imt one in ten that knows what a 

 natural swarm is. Half of the swarms 

 which issue, if put in a box with their 

 queen, and no other inducement to 

 cause them tn stay, will leave the queen 

 and return to the old hive. That shews 

 wdiere the bees ought to go and whe: 



