May 9, 1907 



American Hee Journal 



He advocates as prevention of swarm- 

 ing requeening just before the main 

 honey-flow ; that is, as far as that part 

 of France is concerned. 



Nearness to Water. 



Owing to the fact that the bees need 

 a considerable quantity of water to 

 rear their brood in the spring, it was 

 supposed that the proximity to a suit- 

 able place to get water would increase 

 the amount of brood reared, and the 

 swarming would occur sooner. The 

 reports fail to show any noticeable 

 difference. 



Size of the Hive. 



On 722 hives observed during 7 years, 

 it has been found that out of 100 colo- 

 nies lodged in straw hives of a capacity 

 of nearly a cubic foot, 60 to 70 will 

 swarm. Out of 100 lodged in one-story 

 movable-comb hives of a capacity of 

 about 2 cubic feet, 25 to 30 will swarm. 

 And, finally, out of 100 lodged in Da- 

 dant-Blatt hives, with enough supers 

 to accommodate them fully, only S will 

 swarm. Mr. Guillemin reported that 

 in his own apiary with such hives, 

 many years have passed without any 

 &warm at all. 



Amount of Honey. 



In regard to the quantity of honey 

 in the hive, 45 percent of the swarms 

 observed came out of colonies having 

 less than 20 pounds of honey ; 41 per- 

 cent from those having between 20 and 

 40 pounds. And what puzzles me most, 

 only 14 percent from colonies having 

 40 to 60 pounds of honey. I would have 

 thought that the colonies having the 

 most honey would be those crowding 

 the queen the worst, and therefore the 

 most liable to swarm. The size of the 

 hives should have been noted, but was 

 not, so that no certain conclusion can 

 be deducted. 



Empty Combs. 



If the quantity of honey present in 

 the hive has no influence in itself, that 

 is, no direct influence on the swarm- 

 ing, it may have a great influence in 

 restricting the amount of empty comb. 

 Eighty swarms out of 100 issued from 

 colonies where the amount of empty 

 comb was insuflicient for both the 

 queen and the workers. Hence, the 

 advantage of large hives. 



Concerning the straw hives, Mr. 

 Thibault thinks the best mode of man- 

 agement is that which consists in add- 

 ing just before the honey-flow another 

 body under the old one. That is prac- 

 tically the equivalent of the Simmins 

 method. 



If I were working for extracted 

 honey, I would certainly try putting 

 the supers under rather than above the 

 brood-nest. When working for comb 

 honey it is diEFerent, because the sec- 

 tions would be badly travel stained. 



Honey- Flow. 



The first swarm of an apiary usually 

 issues 6 or or 7 days after the main 

 flow has begun. The dates may vary 

 some years between 4 and 13 days, not 

 counting colonies swarming on ac- 

 count of some exceptional conditions. 

 It follows that the preparations for 

 swarming are begun before the main 

 flow occurs ; at least in that part of 



France. It might not be so everywhere 

 else, by any means. 



In discussing this subject, Mr. Thi- 

 bault recalls the well-known fact (in 

 Europe) that there are but few swarms 

 when the honey-flow is heavy and of 

 long duration. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



Why and How to Clip Queens' 

 Wings 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE 



In a recent article I told the readers 

 of the American Bee Journal how to 

 find queens ; giving as plain directions 

 as possible, so that even a novice could 

 find one. Perhaps some of the readers 

 wondered at this, thinking that it 

 would not be necessary to find one 

 queen out of 20 during the season, but, 

 according to my views, all queens 

 should be seen at least once a year for 

 the purpose of clipping their wings. 



This clipping of queens' wings has 

 been under discussion for many years, 

 and while the majority of practical 

 apiarists agree, that, to reap the best 

 results the wings of all laying queens 

 should be clipped, a few oppose it, 

 claiming that swarming is conducted 

 with more labor, and also that such a 

 practise will tend toward the weaken- 

 ing of the wing-power of our bees in 

 years to come. Without stopping to 

 discuss these matters further just now, 

 except to say that I believe both points 

 raised are fallacious, I will tell the 

 readers why I clip the wings of my 

 queens. 



In the first place, a queen with her 

 wings all clipped short is more readily 

 found when looked for than the one 

 having her wings, and as in our manip- 

 ulations with bees, it is often very 

 necessary to see the queen so as to 

 keep her when and where we desire, 

 this finding of a queen is quite an im- 

 portant item. And as the average bee- 

 keeper can find a " fully " clipped 

 queen in less than half the time it takes 

 to find an undipped queen, this saving 

 in time is often quite an important 

 matter. 



Second, in the swarming season we 

 have complete control of the bees, so 

 that we can compel them to do just 

 about what we wish them to do. The 

 first idea of clipping queens' wings 

 was to keep the swarm from flying off 

 to the woods, as all know that as soon 

 as a swarm misses its queen it will 

 come back to the old or parent hive 

 again ; but valuable as this idea is, 

 still there are other points which I con- 

 sider of far more importance than the 

 roving of now and then a swarm which 

 might result during the season from 

 the apiarist not seeing them in time for 

 their hiving, or the occasional swarm 

 that might go off without even alight- 

 ing. 



My home apiary is located near a 

 piece of woodland with tall trees near 

 by, and by having the wings of all 

 queens clipped I do not worry about 

 such swarms as may cluster 40 or 50 

 feet up from the ground in these trees, 

 for as soon as the bees notice their less 

 of queen, they will uncluster and re- 

 turn to the old stand hunting for their 

 queen ; so by having the queens 



clipped I am complete master of this 

 situation ; never having to climb tall 

 trees (where none but prime swarms 

 are allowed to issue), and never having 

 to cut off limbs of lower trees to secure 

 the swarm, as is done many times to 

 the mutilating of valuable trees. 



Then in hiving such swarms as have 

 their queens clipped, all that is neces- 

 sary is to set the new hive in the place 

 of the parent hive till the bees return 

 and run in with their queen, which you 

 will let loose at the proper time, hav- 

 ing picked her up and caged her as 

 soon as the swarm was on the wing. 

 As soon as the bees are in the new 

 hive, having hived themselves, as it 

 were, the hive is picked up and set 

 where we wish it to stand, and the old 

 one put back where it was before. Or 

 we can leave the new hive with the 

 swarm on the old stand, and carry the 

 old hive to a new stand, just in accord 

 with ourpractiseof working an apiary. 

 Then you are sure in having the queen 

 go into the hive just where you wish 

 her, as you have her in the cage at 

 your command, while if she were with 

 the swarm she might run under the 

 hive, or take wing and go back on the 

 limb where the bees clustered, taking 

 them with her, etc.; in fact, doing un- 

 thought-of things apparently just to 

 perplex and annoy the apiarist. 



Again, in an apiary containing from 

 10 to 100 colonies, it frequently hap- 

 pens that two or more swarms will 

 come out near the same time and clus- 

 ter together, when we have a perfect 

 nuisance where the queens are enabled 

 to fly with the bees ; but where their 

 wings are clipped these bees can be 

 separated so as to have only one swarm 

 in a hive as easily as any stock mixed 

 together could be. And, lastly, if for 

 any reason we are not ready to hive 

 the sivarm when it comes out, and 

 therefore wish to hold the swarm on a 

 limb or pole while we make a hive or 

 something of the kind, we can keep 

 them as long as we please by simply 

 hanging the caged queen with the 

 cluster. If they try to go off through 

 our being slow in our part of the mat- 

 ter, they will come back to the limb or 

 pole where the queen is as soon as 

 they miss her, and stay there instead 

 of going back to their old home, as I 

 supposed they would till I found out 

 differently. I have thus held swarms 

 for nearly 2 days in trying to see what 

 could be done. 



But as this is an article written so 

 that the novice can "catch on," I 

 think I hear some one asking " how 

 the clipping is done." 



There are various ways, and a few 

 devices invented for holding the queen 

 while she is being clipped, but with me 

 I use only two plans, and have no use 

 for anything further. The first is the 

 one used at all times (except where I 

 wish to do some special clipping to 

 make sure of the identity of a certain 

 queen which I have reason to believe 

 will prove very valuable), the clip- 

 ping in this case being done with the 

 jack-knife, which is always with any 

 apiarist, for a man is " not at home" 

 unless he carries a knife in his pocket. 



Having found the queen, catch her 

 by the wings, using the thumb and 

 forefingerof the left hand. Now place 



