lay, 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



533 



to eat." I hived them ou a frame of hatchins: bees. The nest 

 day I killed their queen and gave them an Italian, and to-day 

 (Aug. 2) they are strong, full colonies. But I fed them for a 

 few days until the Italians were old enough to gather stores. 

 One of them was so nearly starved that when I shook thcni 

 oS the tree they could not fly. Orange Co., Calif. 



Prevention of Swarming — Some Hard Facts. 



BY C. V. DADANT. 



"Is It true that the Dadauts have less than 5 per cent, of 

 swarms, or are they just ' bragging?' — A Readrk." 



Mr. Editor, they say that " a man convinced against his 

 will, is of the same opinion still," but I do not believe it. I 

 think it takes more evidence to convince some people than 

 some others, but I believe that no one can help his or her 

 belief, and when enough evidence is brought to bear, the most 

 incredulous Thomas will " give in," mentally at least, tho he 

 may not like to acknowledge It in public. 



Since arguments do not seem to have convinced everybody 

 who has read our articles, of the possibility of the prevention 



C. F. Dadant. 



of swarming, allow me to bring forward the followiog facts, 

 copied from our reports for 1897 : 



Hamilton, III., July 21, 1897. 

 Account of the Dadant apiary on the Egan farm for the 

 spring of 1897 : Colonies of bees in spring, 50 ; number of 

 swarms caught, 2 ; amount of honey to date, 2.500 pounds. 



J. F. SCANNELL, Tenant. 



Warsaw, III., July 23, 1897. 

 Account. of the Dadant apiary on my farm for the spring 

 of 1897: Number of colonies in spring, 69, ten of these 

 being queenless ; number of swarms caught, 2; amount of 

 honey harvested to date, 2,100 pounds. L. Sack. 



This farm is on the edge of the Mississippi bottoms, and 

 its'main crop Is In August. 



Hamilton, 111., July 29, 1897. 

 I take care of Mr. Dadant's bees at their home apiary 

 and at the out-apiarles, and I know the attacht statements 

 from the different farms to be correct. Their home apiary 

 consisted in the spring of 80 colonies, and has not cast a sin- 

 gle swarm that we know of, tho I believe one or two, or per- 

 haps three, swarms may have escaped. The crop of honey of 

 the home apiary to date Is over 5,000 pounds, I made Ki 

 artificial swarms at the home place, and 1 7 in the out-api- 

 aries. F. M. LEFLf:R, ApUirixt. 



Hamilton, 111., July 29, 1897. 

 Statement of the Dadant apiary on the Hay farm for the 

 spring of 1897 : Number of colonies in spring, 79 ; number 

 of swarms caught, none; amount of honey harvested, 3,000 

 pounds. There is about 1,000 pounds more honey on the 

 hives now. Jos. Villemain, Tenant. 



Hamilton, 111., July 20, 1897. 

 Statement of the Dadant apiary on my farm for the 

 spring of 1897 : Number of colonies In spring, 44: ; number 

 of swarms caught, 1 ; amount of honey harvested, 2,600 

 pounds to date. A few swarms may have escaped unseen. 



A. J. Byebs. 



Hamilton, July 29, 1897. 

 I live within a stone's throw of the Dadant home farm. I 

 have an apiary mainly in small hives, which numbered in the 

 spring 4 colonies. I have had 9 swarms and not a single 

 pound of surplus honey to date. I now have 10 colonies, all 

 told. The large hives gave the largest swarms, but the small 

 hives gave the largest number of swarms. I intend to run my 

 bees by the Dadant methods next year, for I want less bees 

 and more honey. John Hammon. 



It is not necessary to give further arguments. Neither is 

 there any secret about this success. Plenty of breeding-room 

 at the opening of the crop, plenty of empty comb for the first 

 rush of honey, plenty of ventilation, and as few drones as 

 possible — those are the main requisites. 



As a matter of course, those who run exclusively for comb 

 honey will find more difficulty in keeping down the swarming, 

 but if they have empty combs in sections from the previous 

 year, to induce the bees to occupy the supers ; if they use 

 capacious supers and capacious brood-chambers ; if they put 

 the supers on before the opening of the crop; if they avoid 

 the breeding of drones ; and, above all, if they keep their bees 

 comfortable by seeing that they are never suffering from the 

 heat or from overcrowding, or from any difficulty in ventilat- 

 ing every part of their dwelling, they can to a great extent 

 decrease swarming. 



There is, in our opinion, but one incurable cause of 

 swarming, that is, if the bees have a queen which for some 

 reason they wish to supersede either from her decrease in fer- 

 tility or from some defect. They then rear a number of 

 queen-cells, and in a good season the queen goes forth with a 

 swarm. But with young queens, in the circumstances above 

 enumerated, but few swarms will come forth. At least, that 

 is our experience, based upon a practice of nearly 40 years. 



Hancock Co., III. 



Removing Comb Honey from the Hive. 



BY A. B. MELLEN. 



After the bees have made a really fine article of comb 

 honey, it is often materially injured by the inexperienced bee- 

 keeper in removing it from the hive and packing it in the 

 shipping-cases. The first move in taking off honey is generally 

 to smoke the bees. Smoke is all right, but please bear in 

 mind that a little smoke will drive the bees, while too much 

 only confuses them. I generally blow a little smoke on the 

 alighting-board — just enough to divert the guards at the en- 

 trance of the hive — then remove the cover, and as I raise the 

 painted cloth which covers the sections I blow smoke across 

 the top of the sections (against the wind If there is any). This 

 allows just enough cold smoke to drift into the sections to 

 send the bees scampering below. Now, turn the super quickly 

 on its edge, so that the wind will blow through the super from 

 the top, as it is set on the hive, and, with a Coggshall's bee- 

 brush, quickly brush the bees from the bottom of the super 

 into the next one below, or into the hive. In this way nearly 

 all of the bees will be gotten out of the super at the start. 

 Now, pile the supers up six or eight high (if you have that 

 many to take off at one time), and place a double-cone bee- 

 escape on top of the pile ; then just watch those six or eight 

 different families of bees hustle each other out of those sec- 

 lions and make a bee-line for their own hive. 



While the Porter bee-escape works very well on the hive, 

 I prefer the above plan, as it saves one handling of the supers 

 full of honey. Then, again, the honey Is all piled in good 

 shape to run Into the honey-house at sundown. The cone es- 

 capes never get clogged with dead bees or propolis. 



I have sometimes noticed a bee-keeper taking off comb 

 honey— and be was old enough to know better— approach the 

 hive and give the bees a drastic smoking at the entrance, 

 thereby driving a large portion of the bees into the top super. 

 Then he would yank off the hive-cover with a snap— a cloth 



