Oct. 15. 1911 



be no question but that, in a time with no 

 robbing and plenty of honey coming in, 

 much better time could be made. 



The apiary in question is in a small vil- 

 lage, with a blacksmith shop and other 

 buildings but a few rods away from the yard; 

 and when a number of colonies were de- 

 queened, that factor, together with the ten- 

 dency of the bees to rob all the time, caused 

 them to get very cross, and I was afraid of 

 trouble from stinging. This condition caus- 

 ed me to abandon the idea of requeening 

 the whole apiary at this time; but certainly 

 the difficulty of finding the queens had 

 nothing to do with changing my plans. 

 While working under the tent it was a reve- 

 lation to me to learn that, although the bees 

 outside Mere very cross, yet inside one could 

 work with impunity without a veil or hat 

 on, and get scarcely any stings. The cross 

 bees from the hive seemed to cluster in the 

 corner of the tent and stay there until shak- 

 en down when moving to another hive. 

 But when I would emerge from cover, cer- 

 tainly it was a case of "lower the curtain " 

 or get lots of plugging. 



One thing that puzzled me very much 

 was why I failed in drumming the bees into 

 a box over the hive. I know some good bee- 

 keepers who have followed the plan with 

 success, and it must have been bungling on 

 my part in some way. The first time I tried, 

 I had an idea that too much smoke was used 

 at the entrance, and some of it went into 

 the super above and made it unpleasant for 

 the bees to stay above. The next time no 

 smoke was used, and still I could not get 

 the bees to stay there in a cluster. Then, 

 again, it took too much time to get them 

 even started to go above in any considerable 

 quantity; and when a queen could be found 

 every 12 minutes by the other plan, a meth- 

 od that took at least twice as long was not 

 to be considered. 



In thus describing in a rambling way the 

 methods employed in hunting out a lot of 

 black queens under the most unfavorable 

 circumstances, T am fully aware that there 

 must be some details that can be improved 

 upon, and, as intimated, the foregoing has 

 been given, not with any idea of its being a 

 perfect method; and no one will appreciate 

 more than the writer some suggestions that 

 may be given that will point out how we 

 can get along better next time, as we have a 

 lot of this work to do in other yards another 

 year. 



Just a word as to introducing the queens. 

 When we found the condition prevailing in 

 the yard, a heavy loss in queens was antici- 

 pated, especially when, on the following 

 morning after dequeening colonies, as many 

 as a cupful of bees was found in front of each 

 colony that had been operated on. My 

 original intention was to introduce on the 

 plan of pressing a wire-cloth cage over brood 

 with the queen underneath; but this was 

 abandoned when we found robbing so bad. 

 The plan adopted was as follows: 



In the honey-house in front of the win- 

 dow, all bees were removed and the queen 



621 



was placed in a cage alone. Cardboard was 

 left over the plug of candy; but the card- 

 board was perforated with a pin until it 

 would hardly hold together. The second 

 evening after dequeening, the cage thus pre- 

 pared was placed between two combs, the 

 combs being spread apart for that purpose. 

 The colony was left strictly alone, at least 

 long enough for the queen to be released, be- 

 fore the hive was disturbed. All but 15 were 

 introduced by this plan, and, to the best of 

 my knowledge, not a queen was lost. The 

 15 exceptions were run in the tops of the 

 hives in the evening, after the colonies were 

 heavily smoked with tobacco. One was lost 

 by this method; but I think the colony was 

 treated too early in the evening, and not 

 enough tobacco used. These surmises are 

 based on the fact that the colony that killed 

 the queen was the first one that I started on 

 in the evening when the work was done. I 

 was greatly pleased at my success in intro- 

 ducing at a time when ordinarily one would 

 expect heavy losses; and one reason that I 

 assign for such good results is thai the hives 

 were not molested until after the queens 

 were released and had begun to lay, as I be- 

 lieve violations of this principle cause the 

 loss of many queens during the process of 

 introduction. 

 Mount Joy, Ont., Can. 



SWARM PREVENTION VS. SWARM CONTROL. 



BY J. E. HAND. 



Mr. J. E. Hand:—1 have read with much Interest 

 what you and others have written in Gleanincs 

 about your sy.stem of controlling swarm.s with your 

 double switch-board. I think that all the princiolps 

 involved in the methods of Alexander and Doolittle 

 can be carried out, and others besides, with much 

 less labor, and in a more pleasant way, by vour 

 method, if correctly understood and properly ap- 

 plied. I have just the number of colonies I desire 

 I do not want to increase nor decrease. AH are in 

 fine fix. with choice queens. There are three frames 

 of Ibrood and eggs in each to-dav. Now can I put 

 two of those colonies on your switch-board, and 

 with safety to queen and bees, switch the working 

 bees of one into the other, and, after eight or ten 

 days, switch them back again into Xo. 1, changins 

 supers over, of course, to No. 1, thus uniting the 

 working force of two colonies in one set of supers "> 



Of course I mean that the first switch is to be 

 made after the colonies have become strong and 

 are near the swarming-point: also that all oueen- 

 cells started in No. 2 should be cut out before bees 

 from No. 1 are switched into it. I should also per- 

 haps, remove all combs containing only honey from 

 No. 2, and replace with frames of foundation only 

 so as to satisfy the disposition for comb-building 

 giving super space as conditions require 



Selma, Ala. rev. F. G.'railey. 



From the nature of the correspondence I 

 am receiving with reference to the new meth- 

 od of controlling bees it is evident that some 

 have a wrong conception concerning the 

 correct system to be carried out in connec- 

 tion with my bottom-board equipment for 

 the successful control of swarming. 



While the method mapped out by our 

 Southern friend could doubtless be operated 

 with safety to bees and queens, the result 

 would undoubtedly be a disappointment to 

 the operator, for the reason that the principle 

 IS applied in open violation of the laws that. 



