THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



176 



From the Practical Farmer. 



Prevention of Swarming;. 



To prevent hives from s^v;u•ming, sev- 

 eral methods have been advocated. 



1. Many persons, sui)posinu; that bees 

 swarm only for want of room, aim to pre- 

 vent it by furnishintr abnndance of room, 

 either in- the main hive or in the surplus 

 honey receplacles. But every experienced 

 bee keeper is aware tiiat stocks will often 

 swarm without occupying the surplus 

 storage room — or after tliey Inive partially 

 fllled'it with comb; and in Mexico, where 

 bees are often kept in flour binrels, I have 

 seen them swarm when the barrels were 

 not near filled with comb. I have repeat- 

 edly had swarms from old gums, holding 

 over two bushels, and a few days ago, a 

 swarm issued from a stock of Italian 

 bees, to which over two bushels of storage 

 room for surplus honey had bsen given — 

 two hives being'placed over tlie old stock, 

 in the method described in plate v., figure 

 16, of the third edition of mj' book. The 

 bees had filled the second story, and were 

 busily at work in the third. It is very 

 evident, therefore, that ample storage 

 room cannot always be relied on for pre- 

 venting swarming. 



2. Many devices have been contrived 

 for preventing swarming, by contracting 

 the entrance to the hive, so as to prevent 

 the queen from leaving, while free egress 

 is allowed the workers. At one time I 

 looked upon what I called my non- 

 swarmer, with considerable favor; but 

 longer experience has convinced me that 

 it will not answer. It is true that if the 

 entrance is made exactly five tliirtysec- 

 onds of an inch high, the queen cannot 

 get out, the bees, after swarming, will 

 return to the hive. But such accuracy of 

 adjustment is diflicult to obtain, and the 

 bees are seldom reconciled to the squeezing 

 necessary to enter the hive, by wliich 

 many of them have their pollen rubbed 

 ofi. The whole colony is also thrown 

 into great excitement every day, when the 

 drones attempt to take their flight; and 

 the entrance must be enlarged daily, early 

 in tlie morning, or late in the afternoon, 

 to allow the bees to cany out dead drones 

 and imperfect brood, which they have 

 been dragging for hours about the con- 

 tracted passage. 



3. Clipping the wings of the queen to 

 prevent swarming, is an old device, but 

 one which with the ordinary arrange- 

 ment of hives can never be relied on. A 

 queen without wings feels perfectly com- 

 petent to accompany the swarm, and will 

 hop ofi" the alighting b(mrd and in most 

 cases be lost in the grass. Tlie bees I'e- 

 turn to the parent stock, to await the de- 

 velopment of the young queens, and will 

 then swarm, often three or four times. 



4. From some experiments which I 

 have tried this season, I think I can ef- 



fectually prevent swarming, without in the 

 least interfering with the natural instincts 

 of the bees. 



The hives in which swarming is to be 

 prevented should all have their alighting 

 boards resting on a large board i)laced on 

 the ground, and the wings of the queens 

 should be clipped in a way described on 

 page 223 of my book ; so that if she leaves 

 she may easily climb back to the hive, 

 when attracted by the loud hum of her 

 returning colony. She will not be dis- 

 posed to leave often ; and the bees will 

 probably aid her in destroying the matur- 

 ing queens. Of this, however, I shall be 

 more certain after an enlarged course of 

 observations. If the bees should prevent 

 the destruction of the young queens, and 

 the old one should be killed, then the 

 whole plan will fail. Of this, however, 

 I have little fear. L. L. Langstroth. 



Oxford, Ohio. 



For the American Bee Journal. 

 *' Coe's Apiary." 



In an article by J. P. Moore, page 142, 

 he sa3'S : " There are some things in Mr. 

 Coe's article, page 112, that I think 

 would be likely to mislead those who 

 have had no experience with the apiary 

 house." He also says: "I have used a 

 house similar to Mr. Coe's for the past 

 two seasons." 



Now, I believe Mr. Moore is sincere in 

 what he says, but having never seen one 

 of my apiaries, or even had a description 

 of one, may he not judge me unfairly? 

 He uses a Faulkner hou3e, and that is the 

 standard by which he judges mine. He 

 is greatly mistaken in saying it is similar 

 to mine. 



I spent two days with Mr. Faulkner 

 last August, and carefully examined his 

 apiary liouses, (he had tliem in his yard 

 at home) but failed to find a single feature 

 either in construction or management 

 similar to mine. As to the value of Mr. 

 Faulkner's house, I can only say that Mr. 

 Moore himself likes it very much — 

 " would not be without it." 



Mr. Winder, of Cincinnati, on whom I 

 called on my way to see Mr. Faulkner, 

 said he had seen it and liked it very 

 much ; and others using the house gave 

 like testimony. When I was there Mr. 

 Faulkner had on hand about ten tons of 

 as fine box honey as I ever saw in any 

 market, notexcepUng Harbison's or Capt. 

 Hetheriugton's. He had been ottered ior 

 it by a merchant of Memphis, Tenn., 29 

 cents per pound, but was holding it at 35. 



As to the value of my invention I have 

 nothing to add to wliMt I said in the May 

 number of the Journal, until tne bee 

 keepers of the country give their verdict 

 upon it. I am now engaged in building 

 " Trial Apiaries " in several States and 



