1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



231 



has been a chanRe in your system, and the hope may be in- 

 dulged that it may be only temporary, and that you will before 

 long change back to your former condition. 



2. Washing-fluid is perhaps the thing you have seen rec- 

 ommended. Strong soap with very hot water will do pretty 

 good work. Put as much lye as can be used without eating 

 the hands, Into hot water, and that will succeed. I generally 

 use grease because it's handier. Take a bit of butter or other 

 grease, rub thoroughly on the glue, then wash with soap and 

 hot water. 



Starting willi Bees— Prevention of Swarming. 



1. I have never owned a bee in my life, but like honey. I 

 expect to get a start of bees this spring, and have chosen the 

 Italians, and thought one colony would be enough for a green- 

 horn to start with ; but they tell me here that one colony will 

 not do any good alone. It is news to me, but perhaps it is all 

 right. I am taking the Bee Journal, and reading It quite 

 closely, as I don't want to make a failure of the business, but 

 I have not seen anything on that subject. I supposed indi- 

 vidual colonies of bees were independent of each other. What 

 is your opinion on the subject ? Is it necessary to have two 

 or more colonies to begin with? 



2. Is there any way to successfully prevent bees from 

 swarming ? H. J. W. 



Answers. — 1. You're surely doing a bright thing to read 

 up before commencing the actual work with bees, but why 

 don't you get a good text-book ? The American Bee Journal 

 is worth more than its cost to you, but it cannot, in the nature 

 of things, give you a complete and systematic foundation as a 

 text-book can. Perhaps, however, you have the text-book, 

 and I'll proceed to your question. You perhaps reasoned that 

 if 20 cattle would do well in a pasture, 19 might do as well 

 or better. If so, you reasoned correctly. If two colonies of 

 bees will do well, one ought in all cases to do as well, and if 

 pasturage Is scarce one might do better than two. Don't you 

 believe what they say. And yet I think they're right in advis- 

 ing you to start with two colonies. A greenhorn like you may 

 do some fool thing with one of the colonies to result in killing 

 it, and then you'll have the other to fall back on. Or you 

 may weaken both, so that singly they will amount to nothing 

 the whole season, but by uniting you can make one good, 

 strong colony. Suppose, however, that you're wiser than the 

 rest of us were when we began, and make no mistakes. It 

 may still be better to have the two. You'll have twice the 

 experience at the end of the season, and possibly you may 

 want to make an artificial colony from the two, that you 

 could hardly do from one alone without weakening it too 

 much. There may be other reasons, but you now have prob- 

 ably enough. 



2. Now look here. If you're going to ask such hard ques- 

 tions before ever owning a bee, what will you be when you 

 come to have two or more colonies ? Well, if you want to 

 make a dead sure thing that a colony will not swarm, kill It 

 with brimstone or blow it up with dynamite. Anything short 

 of that may fail. All joking aside, one of the most difficult 

 things to accomplish is to succeed in preventing swarming 

 without interfering with a crop of comb honey. With ex- 

 tracted honey it's easier. Give abundance of room, let the 

 entrance be ample for ventilation, keep the hive shaded, and 

 you may not be troubled much with swarming. Dadant & 

 Son don't have more than one colony in 20 swarm, and they 

 attribute it mainly to their large hives, holding the equivalent 

 of more than 12 Langstroth frames. They work for ex- 

 tracted honey, but they think the result would not be very 

 different with comb honey. All that can be done here is to 

 give you the general causes to which swarming is attributed. 

 Small quarters, too much beat, and an old queen. Avoid 

 these, and you will have done something to prevent swarming. 



Queen and tbe Sex of Fgg§- 

 Honey. 



-Storage Room for 



1. How does the queen determine the sex of her eggs ? 



" Langstroth on the Honey-Bee,"in paragraph l-l-l, says : 

 " It is possible that the width of cells and position of her legs 

 when laying in drone-cells," for drones. In paragraph 14'.' : 

 "The pleasant sensation causes preference for worker-cells, 

 sex seemingly determined by size of cells." In paragraph 

 150: "It seems to be due to fatigue," and that sensation, 

 position of legs, and size of cells don't work. 

 <cz. I had a nucleus last fall late that reared quite a quantity 

 of drones in worker-cells. It was late in the season, and 

 they were weak in bees, and were needing workers and not 



drones. They are now ':■ good condition, and a fair colony 

 with no drones or dron.- cells. I read of workers reared In 

 drone-comb, but never had any. Seems to me that sex Is not 

 very clearly explained. 



2. Also, for location of storage room for honey : Para- 

 graph 26 : " Honey when harvested is stored in tlie rear ol 

 the hive nboi'c Oic bro'jrf, and as near it as possible." Para- 

 graph -154: "1st. So long as bees have an abundance of 

 empty space | combs] below their main hive they very seldom 

 swarm ; but if it is on the sideri of the hive, or above them, 

 they often swarm rather than take possession of it." Para- 

 graph 459 : "This empty comb 7;ii(.st be near and above, or In 

 front of the brood." The foot-note following paragraph 762 

 would indicate below as being the proper place. 



Now as honey is what we are after, and no swarming 

 means stronger colonies and more honey, it would seem that 

 surplus receptacles should be below the brood-nest 1st, and 

 2nd choice, in front and above ; 3rd choice, in rear and above ; 

 4th choice, above ; and 5th choice, sides of hive and above. 



How is this, anyhow ? I'm somewhat muddled, but will 

 try to give plenty of room within reach until I get straight- 

 ened out. A Seeker. 



Answers. — 1. I should be very glad to tell you just how 

 the queen determines the sex of eggs, but for the simple rea- 

 son that I don't know. Perhaps the majority think that it is 

 simply a matter of will on the part of the queen. She wills 

 an egg that shall prepuce a queen or a worker, and the egg as 

 it passes out is impregnated. She wills it shall produce a 

 drone, and it passes out without being impregnated. If it be 

 true that she does exercise her will in that way, she seems 

 generally to will that worker-eggs shall go in smaller cells 

 than those which receive drone-eggs. Others think that in- 

 stead of the will of the queen, mechanical compression or 

 something of the kind connected with position controls the 

 fertilization of the egg. There seems to be a leaning toward 

 this latter view in Langstroth's book. The apparent dis- 

 crepancy that you mention is not very hard to explain. For 

 altho everything might go on regularly for the laying of eggs 

 in worker-cells, if the muscles that act upon the spermatheca 

 are too fatigued to act, no spermatozoa will pass out to im- 

 pregnate the eggs. 



If I haven't exactly struck the point you're after, please 

 ask again, but remember that I don't know just how the sex 

 of the egg Is determined, and I think no one else claims posi- 

 tive knowledge with reference to the matter. 



2. You've made out a pretty clear case of discrepancy, 

 and yet I think a very small key will unlock the mystery. Just 

 keep in mind that the natural thing for bees to do is : First, 

 to extend their space downwards ; Second, to store their sur- 

 plus upward. I'm not sure but there may be a trifling mix 

 left in some of the statements, but I'll not take the time to go 

 over each separate item, and with the logical mind you show 

 in your questions, I think you'll make out a pretty good job of 

 reconciliation if I give a rough outline. Bees build from above 

 downward, keeping the brood below, and as they accumulate 

 stores they put them in the upper cells vacated by the hatch- 

 ing brood, and when these fail they next use for storing the 

 the rear and sides. That's in general the natural way, and 

 we oblige them to vary from that by our interference. In the 

 passages you have quoted, some of the time the thought is 

 about room for surplus honey, and some of the time about 

 room for brood. We may give room anywhere, and it will 

 have some tendency to prevent swarming, but room given for 

 brood will be more efficacious than if given for surplus. Keep- 

 ing in mind that the bees want their brood below and their 

 honey above, if we give them room above they'll use it for 

 storing, and this will allow them to have a chance for more 

 room below for breeding. But if we give them empty space 

 below, they can have that for immediate use for the laying of 

 the queen, and that more directly suits them. So you see that 

 giving room below is the most effective in preventing swarm- 

 ing, but the room below ivill not lie used for surplus. That's 

 Mr. Simmins' plan, to keep constantly room to build below, 

 removing the new combs as fast as built, but whether it be on 

 account of the extra work involved, or for some other reason, 

 beekeepers in general do not take kindly to the plan. All 

 things considered, I should say that altho giving room below 

 is the best for prevention of swarming, you must give addi- 

 tional room above, for you want there the fresh work for sur- 

 plus. 



If this helps you out to any extent I shall be glad, and in 

 any case I shall be glad to hear from you again. 



No'w is the Time to work for new subscribers. 

 Why not take advantage of the offer made on page 23b ? 



