AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



407 



these circumstances his best course to 

 pursue is to provide more cell-room by 

 giving them empty combs. If queen- 

 cells have been started, cut them out. It 

 is generally found successful to place a 

 super on the hive, filled with sections, 

 and a frame of brood taken from the 

 brood-chamber, and its place supplied 

 by an empty comb or sheet of founda- 

 tion. The bees w^ill go immediately into 

 the sections, and, finding plenty of w^ork, 

 will generally get over the swarraing- 

 fever. 



If the impulse to swarm is caused by 

 extreme heat, as it frequently does 

 where the hive is exposed to the direct 

 rays of the sun, shading the hive will 

 often control the swarming-fever. 



IS SWAEMING DESIRABLE ? 



This is a question not yet solved. The 

 convention was considerably divided 

 upon it, but it was concluded that where 

 increase of colonies is desired, it is well 

 to allow them to swarm to a limited ex- 

 tent, but if honey be the principal ob- 

 ject, swarming should be limited as far 

 as possible. 



MANAGEMENT DURING SWARMING. 



This is an important point, and one of 

 especial interest to those who as yet 

 have not had much experience in the 

 management of bees. The consensus of 

 the members upon this point is about as 

 follows: 



The bee-keeper should have suitable 

 appliances — hives (movable-comb hives, 

 of course), the frames filled with founda- 

 tion if he has no empty combs. When 

 the swarm issues and has clustered, the 

 old hive should be placed on a new 

 stand, and a new hive on the old stand, 

 filled with combs or foundation. Then 

 catch the swarm in a suitable swarm- 

 catcher, and empty them upon a cloth in 

 front of the new hive on the old stand. 

 They will rush in and set to work with 

 new energy, and not know they are 

 doing business at the old stand. The 

 old hive with its brood and honey will 

 soon have a young queen, and in a short 

 time be as populous as ever. It should 

 be watched, and queen-cells removed, 

 lest it cast a second swarm. 



THE HONEY-BEE IN NATURE. 



An essay was read upon "The honey- 

 bee in the economy of Nature," showing 

 the adaptation of the bee to the needs of 

 plant life ; that instead of the farmer 

 and horticulturist antagonizing bee- 

 keeping, they should welcome it as one 

 of the most important and helpful agen- 



cies in promoting their own industries. 

 The same writer touched upon the 

 chemistry of honey and sugar, showing 

 from Prof. Cook's treatise that nectar, 

 which, according to that writer, is 

 largely cane-sugar, when brought rap- 

 idly and in large quantities to the cells, 

 does not remain long enough in the 

 stomach of the bee to be properly digest- 

 ed, and therefore, for the same reason, 

 syrup fed to bees is deposited by them 

 unchanged in the combs. For this rea- 

 son it is impossible for bees to make 

 genuine honey from cane syrup. [This 

 essay by Dr. Vance, will appear soon in 

 these columns. — Ed.] 



ADULTERATION OF HONEY. 



Bee-keepers have been made to feel 

 the great injury done to their industry 

 by adulterations. The World's Fair city 

 is a prolific source of those condemnable 

 mixtures of honey and glucose, and re- 

 tail stores throughout the Northwest are 

 supplied with them in competition with 

 the genuine products of the apiaries, 

 greatly reducing the price and obstruct- 

 ing the market for the pure and unadul- 

 terated article. 



THE USE OF SEPARATORS. 



Mr. Wilcox, who served as manager of 

 our honey exhibit at the World's Fair 

 last year, was very decidedly in favor of 

 separators. He said it was the next 

 thing to impossible to get straight combs 

 without them. His experience in obtain- 

 ing honey suitable for the exhibit last 

 summer had convinced him of the fact. 



Mr. Gross said his experience did not 

 coincide with that of Mr. Wilcox's. The 

 others present seemed to agree with Mr. 

 Wilcox. 



world's fair experience. 



Mr. Wilcox gave a very interesting re- 

 port of his work in preparing the exhibit, 

 and related his experience with the work- 

 men who were engaged in building show- 

 cases, and other work in arranging the 

 bnildings, etc., and the persistent effort 

 on the part of the mechanics to kill time 

 and prolong their job — more than doub- 

 ling the time necessary for getting things 

 ready for the opening of the great Expo- 

 sition. 



A wintering hive. 



Mr. Towle gave a description of a 

 double-walled (chaff) hive with a modi- 

 fied Langstroth frame 14x10 inches. 

 The entrance is situated underneath the 

 hive the full width of the brood-cham- 

 ber, and so arranged that all dead bees 

 fall out and leave the entrance wholly 



