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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



comes so suddenly and so abundantly that the 

 brood-uest is necessarily clogged with honey, 

 and swarming will ensue, at least with some 

 colonies. 



This, for years and years, was for me the 

 bete noire of bee-keeping (Dr. Miller or R. L. 

 Taylor can tell you the meaning of bete noire). 

 But now I can control the swarming complete- 

 ly, and I have the choice between two ( or, 

 rather, three) different methods of doing it. 

 The one I am going to advise is not the one I 

 prefer, but it is on account of the peculiar con- 

 ditions in which I am placed. 



It is not necessary to prevent the actual 

 swarming. The increase is what must be pre- 

 vented ; that is, we want to keep as many 

 bees (or, rather, field bees) in each hive as we 

 can possibly get. In the first place, have 

 plenty of room — that is, of sections full of 

 foundation — at least a few days before the 

 honey-flow begins, and well protected by out- 

 er cases and packing, so as to insure plenty of 

 room for the surplus, and sufficient warmth 

 for comb-building during the night as well as 

 during the day. Perhaps no swarms will is- 

 sue, perhaps several. When a swarm issues, 

 return it and kill or. remove the queen. Put 

 an entrance-guard before the hive, and let the 

 young queens fight it out among themselves 

 until only one is left, then remove the en- 

 trance-guard and let her out to mate. By that 

 time the swarming-fever will be over. 



The ordinary entrance-guard will not do. 

 The drones in the hive will blockade it almost 

 completely in trying to get out. I use queen- 

 traps with a wire-cloth cover instead of tin. 

 The light shining through the cloth attracts 

 the drones in the upper story, and they come 

 up almost at once, and are out of the way of 

 the workers. 



When the young queens emerge, swarming 

 will be resumed ; but the trap will prevent the 

 queens from going with the swarms, and, of 

 course, the swarms will return. In order to 

 permit the young queens to go back to the 

 hive it is necessary to remove one of the cones 

 of the trap, or have a hole by the side of the 

 cones. That hole can be provided with a 

 slide, in order to close it when it is desired to 

 catch the queen or the drones. In fact, all 

 my traps are provided with such a hole and a 

 wire-cloth cover. It will take but a few days 

 to determine which queen will remain, for, 

 when the swarm is out, the cells are left al- 

 most unguarded, and the young queens will 

 come out during that time and settle the ques- 

 tion, and also succeed in destroying the re- 

 maining cells. 



What has become of the " admiration socie- 

 ty " ? The way the brethren have lately been 

 whacking each other does not show very much 

 admiration. 



Knoxville, Tenn., Dec. 28, 1898. 



[Yes, indeed, there is a difference between 

 strong colonies. One may be numerically as 

 strong as another; but one may contain much 

 the larger force of bees of the right age to 

 gather honey. In this question of large or 

 small hives we should not, of course, overlook 

 the matter of a larsje force of bees of the right 



age to gather honey. Doolittle has called 

 attention to the importance of this, over and 

 over again ; and I do not know but we ought 

 to reiterate it on the housetops. 



Your practical conclusion, then, if I under- 

 stand you, is this : That colonies should be as 

 strong as possible the fall before; and to make 

 up for a certain necessary loss in each colony 

 in wintering, brood - rearing should begin 

 early in the spring ; and, if your figures are 

 correct, the brood nest should be full by the 

 28th of April. Unfortunately that is too early 

 for most northern States. We usually can 

 not get our hives full much before the 15th of 

 May here. As that would not leave us time 

 enough to get the requisite force of working 

 bees, I see no other way than that the colony 

 should be very strong the fall before. 



If the main honey-flow for most of the 

 northern States would come on about the 

 middle of July or the first of August, the 

 problem of strong colonies would be more 

 simple. 



Your method of preventing swarming, or, 

 rather, of keeping down increase, struck me 

 very favorably at first. On second thought I 

 fell to wondering if colonies with young 

 queens trying to swarm, and being balked, 

 wouldn't be inclined to fritter away valuable 

 time. I have tried controlling swarming with 

 perforated zinc ; and my experience is that, 

 when a colony is thwarted in its effort to carry 

 out its natural instincts, it will sulk right in 

 the midst of a honey-flow. — Ed.] 



LARGE HIVES. 



Answer to the Editor's Question ; Large Hives Nec- 

 essary for Full Capacity of Good Queens. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



Rlr. Editor: — In your last comments you 

 ask me whether I think the eight-frame hive 

 is large enough to accommodate the breeding 

 capacity of the average good queen. Emphat- 

 ically I will say no. Neither do I think that 

 the bee-keeper who makes any tests at all, no 

 matter who he is or where he is, would answer 

 the question in any other way. My experi- 

 ence is that about one-third of the queens are 

 crowded in a ten frame brood-chamber, and 

 that not over one-tenth of the colonies can be 

 sufficiently accommodated with breeding-room 

 in an eight-frame hive ; while perhaps only- 

 two or three per cent of the healthy queens 

 would find this hive too large. 



Perhaps many people will disagree with me, 

 who have never used any thing larger than an 

 eight-frame hive, because they judge of the 

 possible strength of a colony by the experi- 

 ence that one may get with such a hive. I 

 beg leave to say that it is next to imposs : ble 

 to judge fairly of this question without first 

 giving a trial to large brood-chambers the year 

 round. It is useless to expect as populous a 

 colony for either spring, summer, or winter, 

 on an average, in a small hive, as in a large 

 one. One might as well expect as large a colt 

 from a pony as from a Norman mare. A great- 

 er cluster, a larger space, and a greater amount 



