MAY 1, 1916 



other yards of a score of coloni&s each; and 

 during' any spare time I have I act as bee 

 inspector for the state. Those are my side 

 lines, my vocation being banking. So far I 

 have had .sufficient time to eat, sleep, and 

 be merry. 



Early in my attempts at " wholesome 

 neglect " of the bees 1 i^an into the swarm- 

 ing trouble, and it overehadowed all the 

 others. I tried all the orthodox remedies 

 — found most of them " patent medicines " 

 in which the cure was worse than the dis- 

 ease, so " threw physic to the dogs," and 

 worked out a treatment of my own. Now 

 I have almost forgotten how a swarm looks 

 or .sounds, and my eyesight remains good 

 and my ear keen. 



The formula is a simple one, and can be 

 compounded by any beekeeper who will 

 lake the necessary pains. The ingredients 

 are good cimibs with room enough for tliem, 

 young queens, ample entrance, and a shad- 

 ed hive. 



To elucidate: Good combs. Do you know 

 what they are? In my yards they are all 

 built on foundation in wired frames, and 

 every inch of them is available for brood — 

 except when the workers get there first and 

 put in pollen or honey; but there are no 

 stretched or distorted cells, and drone comb 

 only in the lower half of the frame next to 

 the entrance. ( Entrance is at long side of 

 the hive.) 



Tliere ai'e ten combs in each hive, and 

 hives all have 14% inches clear, inside 

 width. Combs are kept away from the sides 

 of the hive by three good bee-spaces, and 

 that insures brood in outer surfaces of out- 

 er combs when the queen needs the room. 

 The half-comb of drone at the outside 

 means a minimum number of drones com- 

 mensurate with wants of the bees and the 

 labor of the beekeeper. The bees are bound 

 to have some drones; and if you fail to 

 allow them room for raising them they will 

 cut down worker-cells and put in drone 

 anywhere that suits their fancy. Person- 

 ally T dislike their fancies, so I allow them 

 the minimum space for the purpose and 

 put it where I want it, and that is at the 

 front where the queen occupies it late and 

 leaves it early. Drones may not be a direct 

 cause of the swarming fever; in fact, they 

 may be only a symptom (choose for your- 

 self), but certainly there is more swarming 

 where there is an excess of drones, and less 

 whei'e there are few, wherefore T choose to 

 assume that they are more or less direct 

 disturbers of the peace, and ])ermit as few 

 as the bees will acquiesce in. 



Boom enoufjh! Hump! If you don't 

 know what that is you had better give up 

 the business and leave your room for a 



365 



better man. But perhaps you are a well- 

 meaning youngster, and anxious to know, 

 so I'll tell you that room enough means a 

 little more than the hive manufacturers 

 have usually deemed necessary (I almost 

 said thought necessary). It means. enough 

 room so that you can offset the combs from 

 the hive sides sufficiently for one layer of 

 bees to be on the comb, one layer on the 

 hive side, and another layer promenading 

 between. The promenaders keep the others 

 from becoming too somnolent. 



'Young queens — not so young as to be 

 frivolous, but young enough to be vigoroiis 

 luistlers. Mine are raised and introduced 

 in August and September. Why? Well, 

 'tis a rather long story, and it took me a 

 whole lot longer to find out that queens 

 reared and used then were best suited for 

 the ends sought; but they seem to be so. 

 In some other localities some other time 

 might be better, but not here. Such queens, 

 in the first place, put the colonies in bang- 

 up shape for winter, and follow it up by 

 pi'esenting me with a fine score for the 

 lioney-flow, and make wholly good by 

 sticking to business till after the flow and 

 the season for all swarming foolishness is 

 past. My queens are not only all of the 

 same age, but daughters of the same moth- 

 er, so all colonies are very closely alike, and 

 a look at one or two tells the story of all. 

 If any one in the yard is out of condition, 

 entrance appearances tell it. With such 

 queens there is no spring stimulating, no 

 transposing of brood, no fussing nonsense 

 of any kind. Annual requeening pays. Be 

 the reasons what they may, I find I cannot 

 omit the young-queen factor from my reck- 

 oning. 



Ample entrance. For me, I find an en- 

 trance one inch high by eighteen long is 

 ample. You see it is six inches longer than 

 the standard entrance to a ten-frame hive, 

 and also six inches nearer to the most re- 

 mote part of the hive. Use has proved it 

 good. 



Shade. Something to prevent the sun 

 from frying the brood — double covers, tel- 

 escope covers, trees, any old thing to kee]i 

 the sun of¥ during the hottest part of the 

 day — that is, during the honey-flow. At 

 other seasons I prefer a goodly amount of 

 hotness. 



The conditions under which the foregoing 

 combination has made good are these: The 

 ordinary northeastern United States cli- 

 mate, so far as heat and wind and " weath- 

 er " are concerned, but tempered, and often 

 abused, by cool to cold nights, often with 

 fog and sometimes high winds. The main 

 flow comes in July; but .sometimes we get 

 three or even four "surplus flows," as locust 



