GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



old stand, and having as many as possible of 

 the bees there; and, by contracting the brood - 

 nest, compel the bees to store most of the honey 

 In the sections. The second consists in remov- 

 ing or caging the queens at the beginning of the 

 main flow, and not returning them until three 

 weeks later. The queen-cells raised during 

 that time are to be destroyed. 



SOUTHERN HONEY FLOW. 



There is a fundamental difference between 

 the northern and the southern region as to the 

 character of the honey-flow. In the northern 

 region, as described above, the swarming is fol- 

 lowed by only a few weeks (six weeks at most) 

 of comparatively heavy flow. Here, and in all 

 the South, we have, after the swarming, a 

 period of from two to three or even four months 

 of moderate and very irregular flow; that is, 

 not a continuous flow; and what makes it more 

 difficult is that we can not tell in advance 

 which sources of honey are going to yield and 

 which ones will not; so it is necessary to keep 

 the colonies as strong as possible during the 

 whole period. This necessitates prevention of 

 swarming, or, at least, of increase, and also the 

 least loss of brood possible. 



And what I say here of the South applies 

 more or less to the Northwestern States where 

 the surplus comes from alfalfa and sweet clover, 

 and to the Pacific Coast. 



TWO PRACTICAL CONDITIONS. 



Many processes of preventing swarming 

 have been successfully practiced, but yet can 

 not be advised under the circumstances now 

 considered. The first condition is, as already 

 stated, the least possible loss of brood. The 

 second is the least possible work for the 

 apiarist. This throws aside all the processes 

 requiring to do certain things when the colo- 

 nies are in a certain condition; for instance, 

 when they are beginning to build queen-cells. 

 The reason is obvious. To know when a colo- 

 ny has reached the proper point would require 

 at least two inspections every week. Think of 

 the work in an apiary of 300 colonies, besides 

 the aggregated loss of brood and honey caused 

 by the disturbance! What is to be done must 

 be done in a wholesale way, at a definite time, 

 say, for instance, at a certain time of the year, 

 or when the swarming takes place. 



After some seven or eight years of experi- 

 mentation with all sorts of methods and appa- 

 ratus, I recommend the two following pro- 

 cesses. 



FIRST PROCESS. 



Discourage swarming by all possible means. 

 Have the brood-nest of sufficient size; put on 

 the supers in due time; use all the drawn comb 

 you can; don't keep any queen over two years 

 old, etc. 



A point here needs insisting upon. The first 

 super ought to be given early enough to pre- 

 vent crowding in the brood-nest. On the other 



hand, the excess of room given tends to lower 

 the temperature of the hive and frequently 

 prevents the working of the bees in the super — 

 at least the building of comb, especially during 

 the night. A good deal has been written con- 

 cerning the necessity of protecting the brood 

 during the early spring, but nothing or next to 

 nothing concerning the necessity of keeping 

 the first sections given sufficiently warm, dur- 

 ing the first part of the season. Yet I consider 

 the last point as important as the first; and I 

 do not hesitate to say that, in most cases, when 

 the bees do not enter the supers readily, it is 

 because they are unable to keep them warm 

 enough to work these successfully. Notwith- 

 standing, a certain number of colonies will 

 swarm. Return the swarm and remove the 

 old queen at once. Take out all the queen- 

 cells but one, and allow the colony to requeen. 

 This does not cost any thing; the cells are 

 there, the young queen is, as a rule, preferable 

 to the old one, and the time without a laying 

 queen is reduced to a minimum. A queen caged 

 or removed can not be returned before 15 or 30 

 days or she would swarm again; and even 

 then a certain number would reswarm. Rais- 

 ing queens in advance would necessitate the 

 making of nuclei, and the draft of bees and 

 brood from the colonies to make the nuclei 

 would damage them more than the loss of 

 brood by the above process. Use the removed 

 cells to replace as many of the oldest queens 

 possible, or those otherwise objectionable, thus 

 reducing the number o'' colonies liable to 

 swarm. It is needless to say that the use of 

 queen-traps will reduce the above work to a 

 minimum. 



SECOND PROCESS. 



Where bee-paralysis exists I prefer to re- 

 queen the apiary throughout, though 1 have 

 not always had the time to do it. Requeeuing 

 in the very early spring is objectionable. In 

 the first place it is not absolutely certain that 

 it would prevent swarming in all cases. Buy- 

 ing queens in Florida costs something. Rais- 

 ing queens very early entails a considerable 

 loss of brood and bees to the colonies, and one 

 bee at that time of the year is worth ten in 

 the middle of the summer. The raising of 

 queens by the nucleus process takes too much 

 work anyhow when one wants only queens for 

 his own use. I prefer to wait until the time, 

 or near the time, of swarming. If a few colo- 

 nies swarm before I am ready I treat them as 

 stated in the preceding paragraph. To reduce 

 the loss of brood to a minimum I unqueen at 

 first only one colony out of six or seven, per- 

 haps eight, and I use their cells to requeen the 

 others, removing the queens only when putting 

 in the cells. I wait as long as possible to do 

 the final requeening, partly to reduce the loss 

 of brood, partly because the cells not well ad- 

 vanced are not always accepted. It seems that 



