OCTOBER 15. 1916 



SELECTING THE BREEDER. 



P. C. Chadwick. page 718, Aug. 15, gives 

 some rules for selecting a breeding queen. 

 This is a matter of more importance than 

 we have been accustomed to think — of more 

 importance, I believe, than is the breeding 

 of domestic animals or birds. Years are 

 required to change a herd of daiiy cows, 

 while a j^ard of one hundred colonies of bees 

 may be changed in a single season. 



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THE SHAKEN SWARM IN THIS LOCALITY. 



" Here is what happens in this locality 

 when the shaken-swarm plan is practiced," 

 says Wm. Beucus, page 736, Aug. 15. " If 

 shaken on to starters, almost certain ab- 

 sconding; if shaken on to full sheets, very 

 much less absconding ; if shaken on to a set 

 of clean, sweet-smelling worker combs, no 

 absconding whatever." Now, this is doubt- 

 less true to some extent in most places, tho 

 not as bad as in his " locality." Bees seem 

 especially inclined to abscond when shaken 

 on to a full set of frames of foundation. 

 We found, the past season, that if one or 

 two frames of drawn combs are given with 

 a hive full of foundation it will usually hold 

 them; in fact, I think it answers about as 

 well as a hive full of combs. 



PUT THE BLAME IN THE RIGHT PLACE. 



We sometimes wonder why the flowers 

 do not yield more honey — why the bees 

 should often find it necessary to visit many 

 hundreds of flowers to secure a load of 

 nectar. Too often we forget that the ob- 

 ject of the secretion of nectar is to secure 

 cross-fertilization; and if the amount were 

 large a load would be found in a few. flow- 

 ers; but if only a small amount is found 

 in each flower a large number must be 

 visited, and thus the pollen scattered over 

 a wide area. A bee finding a scanty yield 

 of nectar in the flowers of one apple-tree 

 naturally flies to another; and by so doing 

 it gives us the best kind of cress-fertiliza- 

 tion. 



* * « 



CARROT HONEY ! 



Long ago an old pessimistic preacher 

 declared there was " nothing new under the 

 sun." We can excuse him, perhaps, for he 

 did live in a rather slow age. Had he lived 

 in this age of steam and electricity, of auto- 

 mobiles and flying-machines, T think he 

 would have thought there were many new 

 things under the sun. Even in beekeeping 

 there is something new to learn each year; 

 and I have seen something new recently. 

 One of our helpers reported in August see- 



ing bees working on wild carrot, gathering 

 honey, " Impossible ! " I said. " Bees do 

 not work on that plant. It isn't in the 

 catalog of honey-plants in the ABC and 

 X Y Z." Then another reported seeing bees 

 at work on it. I had noticed tlie bees in our 

 home yard were storing a little in brood- 

 chambers. Then I went and looked myself, 

 and, sure enough, there were the bees walk- 

 ing around on the great flat umbels of this 

 plant, lapping up the atoms of nectar. 

 * * » 



JUST WHAT IS THE CAUSE OP SWARMING? 



There are few things we would more like 

 to know positively and accurately than the 

 cause of swarming. Mr. J. E. Hand, page 

 599, July 15, gives his views, some of 

 which do not seem to correspond with our 

 experience among the bees. He says, "Give 

 me a queen of undiminished fecundity and 

 I will show you a non-swarming colony." 

 This year we have had many colonies swarm 

 with young queens that have been laying 

 but a short time. Indeed, a young vigorous 

 queen seemed but poor protection against 

 swarming. 



Mr. Hand further says, " Queen-cells are 

 inseparably associated with swarming." We 

 have found colonies repeatedly swarming 

 without a trace of queen-cells upon the 

 combs of their hives. He gives us to under- 

 stand that queen-cells are started largely 

 for the purpose of superseding the queen; 

 that the queen cares little for them until 

 they are sealed, and then she is so put out 

 that there is a sort of insurrection in the 

 hive, and out go the bees. And yet we oft- 

 en find the queen among the last to leave 

 the hive. More, we often find them swarm- 

 ing before the oldest queen-cell is sealed. 

 If sealed queen-cells were the cause of the 

 trouble we should only have to see that 

 there Avere no sealed cells until the queen 

 had regained her fecundity to prevent all 

 swarming, yet this is no sure method of 

 prevention. 



He also tells us that the queen " cannot 

 control egg production," and that a queen 

 will scatter her eggs over the combs of a 

 small hive and become exhausted sooner 

 than in a large hive. This does not har- 

 monize with my experience. 



If Mr. Hand's theories are correct, why 

 is it that bees swarm less in hives well ven- 

 tilated than in hot poorly ventilated hives'? 

 Is the fecundity of the queen greater in 

 such hives, so that she can keep right on 

 thru the season? Is the fecundity of the 

 queen greater in seasons of scarcity when 

 few swarms issue than in seasons of abun- 

 dance? We know the amount of brood in 

 such seasons is far less. 



