THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



155 



Pruning Stocks. 



Spring pruning is injudicious and inexpe- 

 dient in sections of country "where early bee-pas- 

 turage regularly abounds, or where honey- 

 yielding crops, such as rape, for instance, are 

 annually cultivated. There honey is usually so 

 plentiful at that season, that the great want of 

 the bees is a supply of empty cells in which to 

 store up their gatherings. It would hence be 

 much wiser and better to aid them by inserting 

 old combs, were it in our power to furnish them, 

 rather than to increase their difficulties and em- 

 barrassments by pruning off and removing any 

 portion of those which the hives contain. 



But the case is bravely altered iu districts 

 where the supjilies of pasturage, though early 

 and ample, become available only very gra- 

 dually, in orderly succession, and where the 

 principal honey-harvest docs not occur till June 

 or July, or possibly not till August or Septem- 

 ber. There spring pruning is proper and in 

 place, and may be unhesitatingly recommended 

 and employed. 



Ample proof of the correctness of this and of 

 the resulting advantage can be furnished from 

 various sections of country, almost every year. 

 But the reason why it is beneficial in such sec- 

 tions is not that commonly assigned for it — 

 namely,that the precocious developmentof a col- 

 ony, and consequently premature swarming, are 

 thereby prevented. The effect is the very re- 

 verse of this. If we desire that a colony should 

 husband its resources in the spring, and main- 

 tain a sure but gradually progressive develop- 

 ment, it should remain undisturbed and unex- 

 cited as long as possible. 



Pruning a colony will as certainly stimulate 

 it to activity, as pruning a tree will rouse its 

 dormant powers, and incite to renewed growth. 

 In certain circumstances, swarming may indeed 

 thus be delayed or entirely prevented; but not 

 because the colony did not become populous in 

 season, for it is well-known that populousness 

 is not the sole cause or the sole condition of 

 swarming. Not unfrequeutly do we find a 

 swarm issue unexpectedly from a weak stock, 

 while from another twice as strong none what- 

 ever issues. If a pruned colony yield a swarm, 

 while an unpruned one does not, it is because, 

 in the latter case, a different direction was given 

 to the activity of the bees. A pruned colony 

 builds comb primarily from the exigency of the 

 case, and continues doing so subsequently 

 simply from habit, and if full play be given to 

 this comb-building impulse, the bees, whatever 

 their number, will remain a united body, never 

 separating into distinct swat ms, unless the state 

 of the weather urgently impel them to divide. 

 Moderate pruning will certainly not prevent or 

 delay swarming. We all know how very rapidly 

 a young swarm will build when placed in an 

 empty hive where all has to be started from the 

 very foundation, and what masses of combs it 

 can show in the course of two or three weeks. 

 And if in such case the queen is enabled to dis- 

 play her fertility in its fullest extent, is it likely 

 that iu a moderately pruned hive as many new 

 cells could not be built, nor as many old ones 

 emptied, as the queen, would be able to supply 



with eggs ? I maintain confidently that a mo- 

 derately pruned hive will speedily contain more 

 brood than an unpruned one, because the in- 

 creased activity of the workers v/ill superinduce 

 increased activity on the part of the queen also, 

 and brood will speedily be extended to a greater 

 number of combs; and because the queen can 

 more easilj" and more rapidly deposit eggs iu 

 half-finished cells than iu such as are of full 

 depth. But whether the colony will yield an 

 increased product is doubtful, and depends 

 mainly on the fact whether or not pasturage 

 continues to be abundant. If, subsequcdtly, 

 there be nothing for the bees to gather, the hive 

 will naturally contain the more empty cells and 

 comb, the more of them were filled with brood 

 at the period of full pasturage. The more po- 

 pulous colony will also consume more of the 

 garnered stores, and thus be the poorer as winter 

 approaches. The injury resulting from pruning 

 will besides be the greater the more drone-cells 

 have been built, in consequence of the careless- 

 ness or inattention of the bee-keeper, who 

 might easily have prevented the construction 

 of such cells by seasonably inserting strips of 

 worker comb as guides. 



If non-pruning prove to be useful in certain 

 districts peculiarly situated, where, for instance, 

 summer immediately succeeds winter, it is 

 simply because when this sudden opening of 

 full pasturage occurs, the bees find themselves 

 in possession of large numbers of empty cells to 

 receive their gatherings, bj^ the rapid tilling of 

 which they, to a certain extent, circumscribe 

 the production of brood; whereas, if brooding 

 were circumbscribed or limited by the operation 

 of pruning, and the growth and development 

 of the colony thus restrained, pruning would, 

 under all circumstances, be disadvantageous 

 and to be discountenanced — iu districts having 

 early spring pastiu'age only, because the recep- 

 tacles for honey would thereby be removed at 

 precisely the time when needed; and in districts 

 with late pasturage, because there would then 

 be fewer laliorers when large numbers would 

 be essentially important. 



And what intelligent bee-keeper would desire 

 to retard the development of his stocks ? On 

 the contrary, he will strive by all proper means, 

 even by the use of stimulating food, to hasten 

 their development, when the probability is that 

 a season of abundant pasturage is approaching. 

 The increase must be gradually progressive, and 

 the greater the number of stocks, and the larger 

 the number of workers at midsummer, when 

 pasturage is usuallj' most abundant, the greater 

 the harvest, and the most ample the surplus. 

 Every interruption of brooding in the spring, 

 whether from want of suppli- s or from cJiange 

 of queen, will be felt later in diminished pro- 

 ductiveness. But, in districts having late p s- 

 turage, spring pruning is not attended by such 

 disadvantageous consequences. It can, there- 

 fore, there not possiblj'- retard the development 

 of the colonies, but will, on the contrary, pro- 

 mote it. DziEr.zoN. 



The Turks have some odd sayings. Among 

 them is this — " You' I not sweeten your moulh 

 by saying ' Honey !' " 



