1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



397 



and dull hearing lead us to pity and venerate 

 the aged man. 



On our return to the city Mr. L. coached 

 me off into another direction, and over one of 

 those nice wheel-roads for which this humid 

 country is noted. These wheel-paths are very 

 convenient near a city, and, being nicely 

 graveled, and used exclusively for wheels, 

 they are always in good order. One of these 

 paths led us over a bridge 600 feet in length, 

 and of considerable height, for it spanned a 

 deep gulch. This is exclusively a wheel- 

 bridge, and shows the enterprise and enthusi- 

 asm of the Tacoma wheel fraternity. Mr. 

 Littooy assured me that this is the longest 

 wheel-bridge in the world, and I shall believe 

 him until some one contradicts it. He insist- 

 ed upon honoring me with a position on it 

 while he snapped the camera at me, and I 

 herewith present the result. 



«j'_±V •H'2--" a --^-* 



ANSWERS; TO - . / 



SEASONABLE 



(QUESTIONS 



L -ag. t@ <& 4S. ^%2 66u& 72$>< & gfr ■&> $fr J 



PREVENTING AFTER-SWARMS. 



Question. — Will you please tell us in Glean- 

 ings something about after-swarms ? If the 

 nice weather of the past two weeks keeps up, 

 swarming will soon be upon us. I am always 

 pleased with the first (or prime) swarm; but 

 the after-swarming is often so long-drawn-out 

 that it becomes a nuisance; yet so far such 

 swarms are something that I have been unable 

 to dispense with. 



Answer. — There have been various methods 

 given for the prevention of after-swarms, such 

 as removing the old colony to a new stand as 

 soon as the swarm has left it; setting the hive 

 containing the new swarm on the stand it pre- 

 viously occupied ; cutting all of the queen- 

 cells but one on the sixth day after swarming, 

 and hiving the after-swarm in a box on the 

 top of the old hive till the next morning after 

 they come out, when they are to be shaken 

 out of the box in front of the old hive, and 

 allowed to run in so that the young queens 

 will, all but one, be destroyed. All of the 

 above plans have their various advocates, who 

 think them superior to any thing else; and in 

 the hands of experienced bee-keepers there is 

 no question but that they will work quite well. 

 But I should feel that I was remiss in my duty 

 did I not tell the questioner of two other plans 

 which I have used for nearly a score of years 

 with good success at all times, and use them 

 in accordance with what I wish to do with the 

 old colony of bees. Where I wish to remove 

 the old hive to a new stand, while the swarm 

 is in the air, hiving the new swarm on the old 

 stand, I proceed as follows : 



As soon as a swarm is seen issuing from any 

 hive, I go to the shop, or to some place in the 

 yard where I get a box or hive, which has pre- 

 viously been prepared, having the desired 

 number of frames ( I prefer frames filled with 



comb foundation for this, or, better still, frames 

 filled with empty combs) in it, taking it to the 

 hive from which the swarm came, when the 

 frames of comb are set out of the box near 

 the hive. I now open the hive and take out 

 the frames of brood, putting them in the box. 

 If the combs of brood seem to be well covered 

 with bees, and the weather is warm, I shake a 

 part of the bees off in front of the hive, be- 

 fore putting the combs in the box. If few 

 bees, or cool weather, I put all in the box, set- 

 ting the box a rod or two from the hive in the 

 shade, as soon as all the frames of brood and 

 bees on them are in the box. I now put the 

 frames of comb which were taken from the 

 box into the hive, and re-arrange it, by which 

 time the swarm will return, if the queen has a 

 clipped wing, as all queens should have where 

 natural swarming is practiced. If the queen 

 is not so clipped, then the swarm is to be hiv- 

 ed in this prepared hive on the old stand, the 

 same as any swarm is hived. 



I next put the combs of brood and bees, 

 which are in the box, in a hive where I wish a 

 colony to stand, and adjust the entrance to 

 suit their wants, when they are left till the 

 next morning. By this time nearly all the 

 old or field bees have gone back to the old lo- 

 cation, so that the young bees which remain 

 are ready to accept any thing in the shape of 

 a queen. I now go to my queen-nursery, in 

 which I always have virgin queens at this sea- 

 son of the year, and select such a one as I 

 wish them to have, and place her in a wire- 

 cloth cage and take her to this hive. Upon 

 opening the hive I take out one of the central 

 combs, holding the same up before me. As 

 the bees are all young, they will at once take 

 to filling themselves with honey ; and while 

 they are so doing I let the queen run on the 

 comb where there are a few cells of honey 

 not occupied with other bees eating out of 

 them, when the queen will commence to fill 

 herself also, the same as she sees the others 

 doing, I holding the cage over her till she 

 begins to feed. The frame is now lowered 

 down into the hive, and the hive closed. In 

 this way the queen and bees appear natural, 

 and I have yet to lose the first queen put in 

 under such circumstances. As the colony now 

 finds that it has a queen, the bees proceed at 

 once to destroy all of the queen-cells, so that 

 no after-swarms ever issue — at least an expe- 

 rience covering nearly a score of years says 

 that none do. 



The other plan I use is equally successful 

 with the above, but is used only where I wish 

 to treat swarms the way they are treated by 

 some, by hiving them on a new stand, in which 

 case I proceed as follows : As soon as the swarm 

 is hived I go to the old hive from which it 

 came, and mark on it with a pencil, "Sw'd, 

 6-15," which tells me at a glance that a swarm 

 came from that hive June 15, should that be 

 the date on which the swarm issued, and the 

 one which was marked on the hive. If it 

 should be another day the date is different; 

 but the plan is the same as suited to any day 

 on which a swarm is cast. On the evening of 

 the eighth day from the date on the hive I lis- 

 ten a moment at the side of the old hive; and 



