1884 



GLExlNINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



517 



Another way to make this little colony profltable 

 is to use it as above till I g'et ready to take away 

 the first comb built, when, instead of taking- it 

 away, I spread the three combs apart and put two 

 empty frames between them. In from ten days to 

 two weeks these will be filled, when two more emp- 

 ty frames are put in which will usually be filled 

 with worker comb, but not always; for by this time 

 they begin to get so strong that some drone-comb 

 will be built. When they will not build worker- 

 comb any long-er, the hive is filled up with worker- 

 comb built by other little colonies, so that in the 

 fall I have a nice colony for wintering. Still anoth- 

 er use I put them to quite largely, is to wait till 

 they get the first comb built, when the queen and 

 frame of brood we first had in the hive, bees and 

 all, are taken out and carried to another empty 

 hive where it is left, together with a frame of hon- 

 ey, to form a separate nucleus; for in this way the 

 most of the bees will staj' with the queen. In a 

 week or so, or as soon as they get established at the 

 new place, the queen is sold, or taken away and 

 used, and the nucleus given a cell to raise another 

 queen. A cell was also given to the bees left where 

 she came from; and as soon as the queen from this 

 cell gets to laying, she and the frame of empty comb, 

 which was given them at the time of uniting, are 

 carried to a new hive the same as was the old queen, 

 and thus I have three good nuclei from the little 

 colony. In forming nuclei in this way I always take 

 the frame away with the queen that has the most 

 brood just hatching, so that the young bees will 

 take the place of what old ones will always return. 



In the above I have given you some of the wajs 

 that small colonics of bees can be used to advan- 

 tage. I now come to friend Root's (luestion, " Why 

 not, when you have got the small colonies up to 

 five frames of brood, go right on in the same way, 

 until each one Is separately built up to a full colo- 

 ny?" If I were woi'king for extracted honey, I 

 would do so; but when working lor comb honey, 

 both of these colonies would get strong enough so 

 as to get the swarming fever right in the honey- 

 harvest, which would spoil all the prospects of any 

 surplus comb honey; for to let them divide them- 

 selves at this time would be ruinous, as far as sur- 

 plus comb honey is concerned ; and to try to prevent 

 them from swarming would amount to .ibout the 

 same thing. I often try caging the queen, or set- 

 ting her aside with a frame of brood for a week or 

 so, a la Miller, Elwood, etc.. but with me, such pro- 

 cedure brings poor return. In this, Mr. Cloc (page 

 4.5T) will find the answer to his question. My object 

 is to get the bees as strong as possible at the begin- 

 ning of the honey-harvest, and this so done that 

 they have no desire to swarm while said harvest 

 lasts. 



1 wish all to bear in mind, that I write what is ap- 

 plicable to my locality; so if any feel disposed to 

 try my plans, and should fail, |)lease be charitable; 

 for location often accounts for the diffeveiico of 

 opinion existing among the " bee-doctors," as many 

 of us writers are called. G. H. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., July, 1881. 



1 know, fiiend I)., you Iwivc i^ivvn us au 

 outline of this way of proc'oedin.u Ix'foie ; but 

 for iill that, it Ktill scciiis tp nic a good deal 

 mystiliod- Vou say if ycfu ))iiild up the nu- 

 clei tp full colonies Ihey would swarm. 

 Well, now, what in the world prevents all 

 yoiir colonies from s\yarmin^, especially 



those that were made strong by being doub- 

 led up just before the honey-harvest? A 

 colony with a young queen is not as apt to 

 swarrii, I know ; but when you get them up 

 to such a degree of strength they are pretty 

 sure to swarm any way, although if you get 

 them well started in storing honey in sec- 

 tions, or in an upper story, for the extractor, 

 they often seem to forget* to get the swarm- 

 ing mania. I know a nucleus will usually 

 fill frames with worker-comb, while a full 

 colony will till it with drone-comb, and I 

 presume that is the idea of having the combs 

 all made in nuclei not too strong. 



WITHOUT 



DO BEES EVER SWARM 

 A QUEEN? 



SOME IMPORTANT FACTS IN THE MATTEH. 



J' N June Gleanings, page 402, is a communica- 

 } tion, " Do bees ever swarm without a queen?" 

 ( I think they do not. But I do not doubt that 

 ■ swarms have been hived without a queen, for I 

 have hived the same kind of a swarm. He says 

 he was away from home when the bees swarmed, 

 and when he came home the bees were clustered. 

 The queen might have flown away when he put 

 them down on paper. I recollect one swarm that I 

 was hiving, when I put them down in front of the 

 hive the queen arose and flew away. I saw her 

 when she arose, but she never came back. I gave 

 them a rack of bi-ood, and they raised them a queen. 

 I had another swarm that came out, and the bees 

 clustered in one place and the queen alighted about 

 three rods from where the bees were clustered. I 

 had a swarm this summer, the bees of which clus- 

 tered in one place and the queen alighted at an- 

 other. Before I went to hive them I saw the bees 

 were much dissatisfied, and I began to hunt for the 

 queen, and found her sitting on a leaf about 6 or 8 

 feet from the cluster. 



Finding a swarm without a queen is not, in my 

 mind, conclusive evidence that the swarm left the 

 parent hive without a queen, for there are many 

 ways that the queen can get lost. If friend L. had 

 known positively that the parent hive was queen- 

 less and then cast a swarm, that would have been 

 positive evidence. He says they were hardly set- 

 tled in the hive containing two frames of comb be- 

 fore they commenced coming out. That is evidence 

 to me that they had a queen when they left the 

 parent hive; and as soon as they missed her they 

 began to hunt for her, knowing they had nothing to 

 prolong life with. If he had not given them any 

 brood, I think they would have gone back to the old 

 hive; or, at least, that is the way they always do 

 for me. 



If this does not find the waste-ba,sket, I may come 

 again. Jas. Huffman. 



Monroe, Wis., July 8, 1884. 



Friend II., I am inclined to agree with 

 you, although there are some who claim they 

 have had (lueenlcss colonies sendoutaswarm 

 which clustered regularly. One of the 

 juvenilt-s has suggested, as you may remem- 

 ber, that a fertile worker may lead off a 

 swarm in tlie way a (pieen does.— There is 

 not much dangc'r. friend II., of an article, 

 lodging in a waste-basket, wliere it presents 

 facts from actu;il experience, presented as^ 

 clearly nnd concisely as you \n^'e dope. it. 



