IS'.i-,' 



(;i.HANIN(;s IN HKK CULTURE. 



329 



obst'i-vf little Fuda in tlu' ui-tof faslcniiiw the 

 fonndiition lo tlu' oomb-siiidt'. 



m)\V TO I'KOfKKM. 



A linliti'd lamp is placfd in luix H. The pn-ss- 

 hoaixl A is placed on tli(> lieatcr H. with tnctal 

 dies dosvn, and heated iirelly warm. In the 

 meantime i)laee a sheet of I'oimdatidn on the 

 stand C. and th<'n the wired t'lame over the 

 fonndation. pressing it down so the comb-giiido 

 will tit down well into the lahhet cut in the 

 edge of the stand 0. Now lift the picss-hoard 

 ffom the box H by two small e'leats i)ieviously 

 tacked aei'oss t lie" back of thi' board, and place 

 the same in the frame on the stand C. The 

 metal dies press the small wires into the foun- 

 dation, and at lh(> same time melt the wax 

 sufficiently to attach linnly the wire; to the 

 foundation. After a munber of fiames have 

 thus been ti-eated. heat the wheel U and tinish 

 llie lot all at one lieating. The franH> contain- 

 ing the half-sheet, as you will notice in the 

 engraving, is Root's extra thin surplus founda- 

 tion. Friends, try it. J. A. lioi.DKX. 



Relnersville, O.. Jan. 1. 



[We liave no doubt that you may be able to 

 imbed the wires into foundation as you de- 

 scribe; but a far simpler way is. to heat those 

 wires by running a current of electricity 

 through them. See editorial elsewhere.] 



PREVENTION OF SWARMING. 



PUTTING A PERFOKATKI) ZINC HONKYBOAKI) 

 UXDEK THE BROOD-FHAMES: HESUI.T.S. 



A friend in Missouri, working on the problem 

 of preventing swarming, asks my opinion of the 

 following plan: Put a queen - excluder under 

 the hive, having plenty of space under the ex- 

 cluder for the exit of the bees. Ofcourse.no 

 queen, young or old. could get out of the hive; 

 and if the excluder is put under at the begin- 

 ning of the clover harvest no swarm would es- 

 cape, because no queen could go with them. Or. 

 if a swarm were wanted from the colony, the 

 excluder might be put under after the is- 

 suing of the prime swarm, thus prevent- 

 ing the issue of an after-swarm. I'uttingan 

 excluder under is one of the tilings I talked 

 over last fall; and while there are very serious 

 difficulties in the way, l"m not so sure that it is 

 not possible some use might be made of it. The 

 two serious difficulties are. first, that all the 

 drones would die in the hive; and, second, 

 that no young queen could leave the hive for 

 fertilization. Let us see how it would work. 

 Suppose a prime swarm issues. The queen, not 

 being able to leave the hive, the swarm is likely 

 to return; but in some cases it might go into 

 another hive or unite with another swarm. If. 

 however, all hives in the apiary had excluders 

 under them, there could be no real loss. Gen- 

 erally, though, the swarm would promptly re- 

 turn: and while iu some instances the cells 

 might be destroyed and the colony continue 

 with its old queen throughout the season, tlu^ 

 great probability is that the old (lueen would 

 be killed on the hatching of the first young 

 queen, if not before. I don"t know just what 

 would be done next; but I suspect that, no 

 queen being able to leave the liive, all but 

 one would be killed in perhaps two weeks from 

 the issuing of the prime swarm. Then the re- 

 maining young queen would be a drone-layer 

 if she laidat all. So it will be seen that the 

 scheme can end in nothing else than the ruin 

 of the colony. 



But. can lio use whatever be made of it? The 

 lirst difficulty might be got over by taking Doo- 



liltle"s plan — a plan that looked troublesome to 

 me at lirst. lull I'm not sun- that it is not the 

 least troublesome way. in the long run. of get- 

 ting lid of drones. The plan is. lo have no drone 

 comb in the hive exeept perhaps an inch scpiare 

 in one eoml); lln'ii when the drone brood in 

 that i)atcli is ready to hatch, slice otf their 

 heads, and repeat the slicing once in three 

 weeks. Even if a very few drones should be 

 hatched in other scattering cells, they would 

 b(! torn to pieces after dying and would do no 

 great harm. 



Kill the other difficulty is more troublesome. 

 True, the destruction of the old queen is not so 

 serious a matter, and we could stand that well 

 enough if we were sure she would be followed 

 in good time by another laying (pieen. But 

 that ()iieen must be fertilized. Xow. if my sup- 

 position is correct (that only one young queen 

 would be li'ft living in the hive), and if we 

 could know just when that interesting consum- 

 mation would occur, then we could take out 

 the excluder and all would be lovely. But. 

 alasl the ifs. We could not afTord to go "through 

 the hive every day to see if the proper time had 

 come to take away the excluder. 



But it wouldn't need watching every day. 

 How often would be necessary? Before finding 

 out, we need to know two things that at pres- 

 ent I don't know, but they might easily be 

 found out. First, how long after the hatching of 

 the first queen may we count on having only 

 one young queen left in the hive? and, second, 

 w hat is the earliest period after hatching that 

 a young queen will be too old to be fertilized? 

 or. in other word<. how long may we keep a 

 young queen coniined without spoiling her 

 chances for fertilization? I do not know this; 

 but careful observation might easily determine 

 it. A virgin queen sent to me from England 

 when six days old was ten days on the way. 

 and was then fertilized, and laid all right. So 

 she must have been sixteen days old or older 

 when fertilized. If she stood the confinement 

 of the ocean voyage, would she not stand, at 

 least as well, confinement in the hive? 



Suppose, now. we put the excluder under 

 belore there is any danger of swarming, or at 

 least make sure that eggs are in the hive when 

 the excluder is added. Then we are safe in 

 leaving the hive untouched for two weeks; for 

 if we found eggs there, there was no young 

 queen present — at least. I tliink that is correct. 

 So, if we open the iiive in two weeks we should 

 never find in it a virgin queen too old to be fer- 

 tilized — all the time supposing that every 

 queen may be fertilized if ccmfined till todays 

 old. Then we might count ourselves all right 

 throughout the stxmmer, by looking into the 

 hive once iu two weeks, so long as we found eggs 

 in the hive. 



But if working for comb honey, I should not 

 expect very long to find eggs in the hive after 

 the time for swarming came. Suppose, then, 

 that, on examination, a colony is found in which 

 no eggs are present, and further examination 

 reveals the fact that not only has a young 

 queen hatched out, but that all the young queens 

 have either hatched outor have been destroyed. 

 If. indeed, several (lueen-cells should be found 

 vacated. I should not feel so very anxious about 

 there being any danger of swarming, and I 

 think it might be safe to remove the excluder 

 until the young queen was fertilized, or perhaps 

 for the rest of the season. 



.Suppose, however, that one or more queen- 

 cells are found with young queens in them, and 

 a young queen probably free in the hive. It 

 will not do to take away the excluder: and the 

 question arises, How soon will it be necessary 

 to mak(^ another examination? or, in other 

 words, how long can we leave the excluder 



