460 



May 30, 1907 



American Hee Journal 



swarming impulse is a great deal strong- 

 er than it is in others, and it seems to 

 me one of the chief reasons for that 

 has been a close, damp atmosphere, 

 with not quite room enough, or ventila- 

 tion enough, in the hive. Now I think 

 that if one can anticipate the weather, 

 and will give the bees sufficient room, 

 and good ventilation, one can very 

 often break up swarming. 



W. C. Lyman — I have e.xperimented 

 more or less along this line, and I 

 find that if you could eliminate from 

 the colony of bees, that is, from the 

 hive of bees, the young bees — those 

 just hatching, and so on, — the remainder 

 of the colony will seldom swarm, and 

 there are ways that that can be done. 

 Perhaps I will show some of the ways 

 tomorrow — ways in which I have done 

 that. 



Dr. Miller— If it be true that the 

 swarming fever is a thing that gives 

 life — maybe I don't quote exactly — but 

 if it is the grand opportunity, that there 

 is where you get the bees that will do 

 the work, the ones that swarm the most, 

 then we want to encourage swarming, 

 and we want to have a whole lot of 

 other swarms and all such things as 

 that. Now I don't believe a word of it, 

 that it is an instinct that is in all of 

 them, and they will all swarm anyhow, 

 and you can't do anything about it. That 

 is all nonsense. There are plenty of 

 men here today that know that there 

 are certain bees that will swarm more 

 than others. Take the Carniolan and 

 compare them with other bees, and 

 there is a difference, and in any kind of 

 bees, whether Italians or blacks or what 

 they are, there are certain strains that 

 will swarm more than others. I have 

 tried for a good many years to do a 

 little in the line of breeding from those 

 least inclined to swarm. It may be en- 

 tirely true, and I am not sure but it 

 is. I am a little afraid Mr. Abbott is 

 right when he says you never can get 

 the instinct out entirely, but I believe 

 you can get a whole lot of it out. I 

 know that the past summer — it was a 

 year of failure with me, but I think all 

 will bear me witness that in years of 

 failure there is often as much swarm- 

 ing as in good years — sometimes in good 

 years, when the bees get thoroughly in- 

 terested in storing honey, we have very 

 little swarming. This year I know of 

 but one colony amongst my bees that 

 made any preparation whatever for 

 swarming. I am just as sincere as I 

 can be in the belief that my attempt- 

 ing to breed from those least inclined to 

 swarm made a difference. I don't know 

 how much difference. I believe, though, 

 that it has made a real difference, and 

 that I have less swarming today because 

 I have tried to breed from those bees 

 that did not swarm. If any of the 

 rest of you want swarming, it is all 

 right.^ I don't want swarming; none 

 of it in mine, if I can get along without 

 it. I know it used to be, and is today, 

 customary to talk about the enthusiasm 

 there is in seeing the bees flying around, 

 and all that sort of thing. It makes 

 me sick when I see them come out. 



R. L. Taylor — How poor a season, I 

 would like to ask, did you have? 



Dr. Miller — It was so poor a season 

 that I think I did not get more than 



2 pounds of surplus honey and it was 

 not so bad as it might have been, because 

 the last of the season the bees got a 

 good amount of fall honey for the win- 

 ter stores. 



Mr. Taylor — Would you really like to 

 have us believe that your bees did not 

 swarm because you have been breeding 

 for non-swarming, rather than they did 

 not swarm because there was no honey 

 coming in? 



Dr. Miller — I doesn't matter so much 

 what I believe about that — 



Mr. Taylor — No; I don't ask you 

 what you believe, but I ask you what 

 you would have us believe. 



Dr. Miller — You asked me what I 

 think. I am going to give you one or 

 two facts, and you can believe just what 

 you like. I spoke of what was the fact 

 this year. Now years ago I had just 

 the same kind of season that I had this, 

 and I had ten times as much swarming 

 as I had this year. 



Mr. Taylor — Yes. Do bees ever do 

 anything twice alike? 

 Dr. Miller — No; not mine. 

 Mr. Taylor— Well! 

 Mr. Lyman — Dr. Miller referred, I 

 think, to the nurse-bees. I would like 

 to ask, when a swarm issues natural- 

 ly, where will you find the majority of 

 the nurse-bees — going with the swarm 

 or remaining in the hive? 



Dr. Miller — I have been taught that 

 it is a mixture, that all sorts go and 

 all sorts stay. I think I have seen the 

 statement that young bees go, and some- 

 times the statement that old bees go. I 

 think that the general concensus of opin- 

 ion is that it is a mixed lot. There are 

 field-bees that go with the swarm, and 

 there are nurse-bees that go with the 

 swarm — all sorts. 



Mr. Taylor- — I have seen a good deal 

 of swarming, and I think that pretty 

 much all the bees that can fly in the 

 hive — a large portion of them, that can 

 fly and get out in time to go with the 

 swarm — go, and often bees come out 

 that can not fly, and try to get away and 

 can not, because they are too young. 

 If the nurse-bees can fly, then the nurse- 

 bees go with the swarm, and if they 

 can not — if they are too young to fly 

 — of course they have to stay behind. 



Mr. Meredith — From 103 colonies of 

 bees last spring I had 2 swarms. Three 

 years ago from 48 colonies I had pos- 

 sibly 60 swarms, and I have come to the 

 conclusion that bees look a little farther 

 ahead for what they expect to be than 

 possibly other animals, and I should 

 judge, from what I have seen, that un- 

 less the conditions are favorable for 

 a honey-flow, the bees will proceed to 

 swarm. 



J. C. Wheeler — I was just recalling 

 a thing that happened, and wondering 

 how long ago I remembered the subject 

 and these very same arguments used. 

 I believe it was 15 or 16 years ago, in 

 this very same convention, the very 

 same question came up, and the very 

 same answers were made. I believe Dr. 

 Miller made very nearjy the same speech 

 and I was wondering, in 15 years how 

 much advancement had been made. Prob- 

 ably every year we have discussed this 

 question, and I doubt if we have any 

 of us advanced one step along the line 

 of keeping bees from swarming, or 



eliminating the swarming instinct. 1 

 may be mistaken. 



F. L. Kimmey — I am young in the 

 business, and I would like to have you 

 continue repeating the things that were 

 said before I was here. While it is 

 true, as Mr. Wheeler says, we do not 

 gain fast — we sometimes say there is 

 nothing new under the sun — yet what 

 we do gain comes in this way, and 

 I, for one, vote to keep it up. Two 

 years ago — an4 when I mention this I 

 hope we won't fall into the error of 

 thinking that Dr. Miller has produced 

 bees that do not swarm because they 

 did not swarm this year. The year pre- 

 ceding this there were few swarms; then 

 they swarmed oftener than I had colon- 

 ies, that is, some of them swarmed twice 

 and some three times. I did all I could 

 to prevent it. This year I did not see 

 a single swarm, with double the num- 

 ber of colonies, until I stopped watching 

 for them. There seemed to be some- 

 thing in the season. I did not see a 

 single swarm until away along in the 

 month of August I discovered one hang- 

 ing on a tree, and after that I found 

 another, and away late, about Oct. S, 

 I found a swarm hanging on a tree. 

 I mention this fact to show that there 

 must have been something in the season 

 rather than in the bees, for I had done 

 nothing whatever to produce a race of 

 bees that would be non-swarming. Yet 

 I believe, and I sincerely hope, that 

 Dr. Miller is right, that you can produce 

 a strain of bees that will be non-swarm- 

 ing; and I think from the success that 

 has been achieved in other lines of 

 race-breeding, that we can do something 

 in that direction. 



W. B. Chapman — I would like to say 

 in relation to the subject under discus- 

 sion, that I have kept bees for 17 years. 

 I started with one colony; never have 

 gotten any outside blood in my apiary, 

 and from that one colony I now have, 

 of the original strain, 11 colonies of 

 bees. I have never had an afterswarm. 

 I have been in a location where we 

 always had plenty of honey. The least 

 amount of honey that I ever had was 

 30 pounds to the colony; the most was 

 70 pounds ; and right here in Cook 

 County. I believe that I have a strain 

 of bees that are considerably non- 

 swarming. From what I have heard of 

 afterswarms and such matters here in 

 convention, I have always considered 

 that I must have been very fortunate 

 to have had a non-swarming strain of 

 bees to start with. 



Mr. Wilcox — I asked that question, 

 because I wanted to know, and not be- 

 cause I knew as much as the rest; but 

 I have studied it for 20 years. I know 

 something about it. and I agree pretty 

 nearly with Dr. Miller, that there is a 

 little in the hereditary tendency, but 

 not enough to rely upon it altogether ; 

 that it is possible that the Caucasians 

 may be more inclined to swarm than 

 some other races or strains, but, after 

 all, there is evidence on both sides. I 

 have noticed, some seasons, when I pro- 

 duced comb honey, in examining my 

 hives, that the colonies all started queen- 

 cells at about the same date. I have 

 gone through my apiary and found al- 

 most every colony preparing to swarm 

 at the same time. Now the question 

 was, whether they contemplated the sea- 



