806 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



The object of requeening is a threefold 

 one, namely, to introduce new blood and to 

 have always a vigorous young queen in 

 every colony; and last, but not least, to 

 prevent swarming, while the object of doing 

 it automatically, as just described, is to 

 eliminate the labor of hunting queens in 

 liives overflowing with bees. Furthermore, 

 by requeening at the close of the season, as 

 advocated by Mr. Merwin, the non-swarm- 

 ing feature is lost, for the principle is not 

 effective except with young queens just be- 

 ginning to lay, or with virgins. Since there 

 is no safe method of requeening with laying 

 queens without dequeening, it is advisable 

 to rear queen-cells from a select breeder, 

 and requeen by the virgin-queen method. 



REQUEENING FOR SWARM PREVENTION. 



In Gleanings, June 15, 1913, Dr. C. C. 

 Miller is responsible for the statement that, 

 if a colony that has prepared to swarm is 

 made queenless for ten days, and given a 

 young laying queen at the end of that pe- 

 riod, after removing queen-cells at the be- 

 ginning and close of that period, that colony 

 will be a non-swarmer for that season. I 

 quote these two eminent authorities because 

 I have combined the Doolittle method of 

 supersedure with Dr. Miller's method of 

 swarm prevention by dequeening, thereby 

 ' forming a combination of requeening and 

 .swarm prevention that eliminates the labor 

 of requeening, removing queen-cells, etc. 

 Here is the method : Remove all brood- 

 combs containing queen-cells from the colo- 

 ny thai is })reparing to swarm, and substi- 



tute dummies. Place the combs liaving 

 queen-cells in a separate hive close beside 

 the colony, without shaking the combs. 

 When the first young queen hatches, remove 

 the remaining cells, also any that may be in 

 the colony, and carefully replace the combs 

 without spreading them, or the bees includ- 

 ing the young queen may be shaken from 

 the combs and run in followed by a few 

 puffs of smoke. 



The reigning queen will be executed with- 

 out parley or delay. This stops egg-laying 

 for approximately ten days without render- 

 ing the colony queenless. Meantime the 

 young queen will have begun to lay, and 

 that colony is a non-swarmer, and will work 

 with a vim equal to a newly hived swarm. 

 It is thus that colonies are requeened and 

 swarming ijrevented with little manipula- 

 tion, and without seeing either queen except 

 the dead one that will be dragged out. With 

 my limited experience with this method, I 

 am not sure that it is necessary to wait until 

 queen-cells are started; if not, the method 

 can be further simplified. We had a colony 

 the present season, with the swarming mania 

 so highly developed that they absolutely 

 refused to yield to any treatment. We took 

 away all their brood and substituted sheets 

 of foundation, and still they swarmed with 

 an egg in a queen-cell; but the virgin-queen 

 method settled the fracas, and they rolled 

 up a fine crojj of surplus honey. While 

 this method gives promise of good results it 

 will require another season to develop the 

 principle fully. 



Birmingham, Ohio. 



50ME COMMENTS ON RECENT ARTICLES ON 



ITEMING 



R. F. HOLTERMANN 



The September 1st number contains some 

 very interesting information in connection 

 with the wintering of bees. The article by 

 J. E. Hand has some points which deserve 

 a little further attention. His remarks in 

 connection with the tendency to winter bees 

 outdoors are jDerfectly correct? That it is a 

 movement in the right direction I also be- 

 lieve, providing proper winter stores are 

 provided. When we come to the question of 

 the best winter stores, Mr. Hand and I are 

 as far apart as it is possible for us to be. 

 He writes, " Bees wintered out in the open 

 in properly protected hives with good stores 

 of pure honey (not sugar syrup), will usu- 

 ally be healthy, strong, and vigorous in 

 spi-ing." 



I feel sure tliat the very best winter stores 

 obtainable is sugar .syrup. Clover honey 



may be its equal, but nothing is its supe- 

 rior. So strongly do I feel about this that 

 at this date of writing, Sept. 22, I am with- 

 holding winter feeding because I would 

 sooner have the bees consume natural stores 

 now instead of using, during the autumn 

 and perhaps very early winter, the sugar- 

 syrup stores. 



In every case where I have had heav}' 

 winter losses I have, to my satisfaction, 

 been able to trace that loss back to the use 

 of inferior natural stores as food by the 

 bees. Wliat makes natural stores unsafe, 

 where the bees are confined to the hive for 

 months at a time, is the uncertainty of their 

 composition. What makes artificial winter 

 stores better is the certainty and uniformity 

 of these stores if the best of granulated 

 suaar is used. 



