238 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apb. 1. 



the nurse-bees still In excess. The comb taken 

 away should be of sealed brood, so as to dimin- 

 ish the number of nurses, and increase the room 

 for the queen to lay in. 



Dr. Miller tried to prevent, not swarming, 

 but increase, by the following process: In the 

 place of the colony that just swarmed, put an 

 empty hive with one or two. combs of brood; 

 then the supers of the old colony on the top, 

 then the old colony itself on the top of the 

 supers, shaking the majority of the young bees 

 in front of the new hive below. Ke says that 

 the old colony will give up swarming entirely, 

 and destroy all the queen-cells— at least, they 

 did the first year he tried the process; but the 

 second year he was not always successful. 



Well, the old colony on the. top was then 

 without enough young bees to feed the brood, 

 and that is why they gave up constructing 

 queen-cells. Probably there were not enough 

 bees left to protect the cells against the attacks 

 of the old queen, and she succeeded in destroy- 

 ing ihem. 



I " don't know," but 1 am pretty nearly sure 

 that, if Dr. M. did not succeed as well the 

 second year, it is because he was careless and 

 did not shake off the young bees from the 

 combs as carefully as he did at fir^t, and there- 

 fore too many were taken " upstairs" with the 

 old brood-nest. 



Again, Dr. M. tells us that he tried to pre- 

 vent swarming by giving a young laying queen 

 in place of an old one, destroying whatever 

 queen-cells might be there, but without suc- 

 cess. Now, why is it so, while, if you take the 

 old queen away, and let the colony raise anoth- 

 er queen of her own, no swarming will take 

 place with her? I see but one explanation. 

 In exchanging queens the conditions are not 

 changed, or, at least, but little, and that on 

 account of the superior laying power of the 

 young queen. But in allowing the colony to 

 requeen with one of her own cells (the apiarist 

 destroying the others), the bees are necessarily 

 without brood to feed at all — at least, during a 

 few days before the young queen begins to lay. 

 I think that, during these few da\s, quite a 

 number of the young bees take to the field work 

 and give up the nursing business; so when the 

 young queen begins to lay, the number of 

 nurses is considerably reduced; and this, cou- 

 pled with her superior laying powers, puts an 

 end to the discrepancy between nurses and 

 brood— provided, of course, there is sufificient 

 room to lay. 



With sufficient room and a good queen I have 

 often prevented swarming by taking away a 

 comb of sealed brood before the number of 

 nurses was too large, and a second comb a week 

 later, perhaps a third one at most. This is a 

 very good way if a moderate increase is want- 

 ed, without giving up a honey crop. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



RESULTS OF FEEDING BEES FROM EARLY 

 SPRING TO BASSWOOD BLOOM. 



FEEDING A LA BOABDMAN NOT PBOFITABLE. 

 By F. A. Salishur-y. 



Wanting to secure a large crop of honey in 

 the year 1896 we concluded to try the Board man 

 plan of feeding, and began feeding May 1, con- 

 tinuing till about June 25ih, feeding about 1 lb. 

 of syrup per day to each of 58 colonies. Syrup 

 was made in the extractor by the process given 

 in The A. I. Root Co.'s catalog; the same 

 amount of sugar and water by measure or 

 weight; it does not make any difference in this 

 regard, as sugar and water, bulk for bulk, weigh 

 nearly the same. After syrup was made it took 

 about 30 minutes to fill all the feeders. This is 

 made possible by having bees in the house-api- 

 ary with feeders made in the bottom-boards. 

 There is no coming in contact with bees, and no 

 occasion to use a smoker. The next morning, 

 when about to feed, a glance along the shelves 

 would show which feeders needed replenishing, 

 the feeders being 1-lb. Muth honey-jars. Some 

 colonies would empty the feeders in two or three 

 hours. As we said before, we kept this feeding 

 up nearly two months, feeding during that time 

 over 4 barrels of sugar. Cost of sugar about $9,5. 



A short distance from us is an apiary of about 

 100 colonies. These bees were not fed during 

 this time. Ours were fed daily. One would ex- 

 pect to see our 58 colonies increase in strength, 

 and swarm early; but the truth is, ours were 

 later in swarming, and weaker in bees, by the 

 time basswood opened. Now, I do not know 

 why ours should be so backward, seeing they 

 had over four barrels of sugar fed them, unless 

 we fed so fast that all the available room in the 

 brood-chamber was filled with syrup which pre- 

 ventsd them from breeding. Last year, when 

 reading friend El wood's results of his feeding, 

 I said he was wrong; but now I agree with him 

 that it does not pay to feed bees. Our crop of 

 honey was about two-thirds of the average of 

 others near here; and with the cost of sugar 

 and work taken out it left us about even. I 

 shall feed no more sugar to stimulate. The 

 only time I see that sugar feeding can be made 

 profitable is in the fall when stocks are short of 

 of stores, when enough should be fed to carry 

 them through till honey comes again. 



Possibly if we had feed all the four barrels of 

 sugar during the week just before basswood 

 opened we should have had a different show- 

 ing; but I do not think enough more honey 

 would have been gathered to pay for the sugar 

 and cost of feeding. 



There is one thing I have noticed in making 

 syrup by the cold-water extractor process; and 

 that is, it does not granulate either in or out of 

 the comb. We have about 10 lbs. of syrup made 

 last June that has stood in the house apiary 

 from that time till now. Of course, during the 



