534 



GLEANINGS IN BEE C U L T r i; K 



SKP'I'KMBKR, 19'JO 



^A 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



as Miss Fowls, but I cannot help asking: 

 "Good friends, haven't you loaded down the 

 plan with some things that really don 't be- 

 long to it, and which will be likely to scare 

 away the beginner from attempting to use 



itr"' 



By this time some beginner will say: 

 ' ' Please tell us what is the plan you are 

 talking about." Well, if any beginner 

 should ask me to tell him how to proceed to 

 prevent the issuing of any and all after- 

 swarms after the issuing of a prime swarm, 

 I should say: "Hive the prime swarm and 

 set it on the old stand, setting the old hive 

 close beside it, facing the same way. A 

 week later move the old hive to a new stand 

 distant six feet or more." There it is in 38 

 words, if my counting machinery is in good 

 repair. And the extra things you have add- 

 ed to it don't improve the plan, but are 

 rather a damage to it. 



I don 't know who devised the plan — I 

 wish I did. Certainly it is none of my de- 

 vising. But there is good reason why the 

 plan should work well, and in actual prac- 

 tice I think it has proved generally suc- 

 cessful. Ijet us look at the philosophy of 

 its working. In a normal state of affairs, a 

 I)rime swarm issues about the time the first 

 cell is sealed, and eight days later a virgin 

 issues with the first after-swarm. This vir- 

 gin likely issues from her cell a day or so 

 previous to her swarming, or a week after 

 the cell she has occupied is sealed over. On 

 issuing from her cell, this virgin makes it 

 her first business to go about and murder in 

 their cradles all her royal baby sisters. Yet 

 if everything is in a prosperous condition 

 the workers stand guard over these royal 

 V)abies, preventing their destruction, and 

 the murderous princess goes off in a huff 

 with a swarm. 



If, now, at the time this first virgin issues 

 from her cell, the hive which contains her is 

 moved to a new location, all the bees which 

 go afield will upon their return home go, not 

 to the old hive, but to the old spot 

 where it stood, and will join the swarm. 

 Thus not a drop of honey will be 

 carried into the old hive, and the bees, 

 discouraged by such a state of affairs, will 

 conclude they cannot aff'ord to swarm, the 

 royal babies will be left to the fierce wrath 

 of their elder sister, or else they will emerge 

 from their cells to battle one another till 

 only one is left. 



You see that so far as the beekeeper's p;ir( 

 is concerned the thing is very simple. He 

 has just two things to do: first to set the 

 swarm pretty much on the same spot as the 

 old hive; second, to move the old hive to a 

 new spot a week later. It doesn 't matter 

 whether the old hive is put to the right or 

 the left of the swarm, and possibly better 

 than either is to put the old hive on top of 

 the swarm. The point is to get the fielders 



at the psychological moment to desert the old 

 hive and join the swarm. 



Now let us consider some of the frills our 

 friends have added to the plan. First, Edi- 

 tor Eoot says, page 352, "the plan of plac- 

 ing the old hive beside the new one, on the 

 old stand, and tearing down all capped 

 queen-cells and seven days later moving the 

 old hive to a new stand." If I understand 

 correctly, that adds to the regular plan the 

 extra work of killing all capped queen-cells 

 on the day of the swarming. Wouldn 't that 

 in many cases double the work? And what 

 would be gained by it? The capped cells 

 being killed the bees would continue the un- 

 capped ones, and a week later there would 

 be a number of sealed cells, but no virgin 

 out of its cell ready to destroy the other 

 cells. By the time the first virgin does 

 emerge, the colony will have recovered from 

 its shock, a force of bees will be carrying in 

 honey, and its dollars to doughnuts that a 

 swarm will issue, the killing of those sealed 

 cells being the very thing to knock the 

 whole thing endwise. 



On the same page Mr. Deneen says we 

 should look at the cells after the swarm has 

 issued, decide by their appearance the time 

 when the first virgin will emerge, and shift 

 the old hive at just the right time to get in 

 her murderous work without interference 

 from the workers. His theory is all right, 

 but will it be an easy thing in all cases for 

 the beginner to carry it out in practice? He 

 assumes that conditions may be such that 

 the shift should be made in four days, or 

 such that it should be in eleven days. And 

 of course any time between four days and 

 eleven days. (There's a chance for some 

 skepticism about that eleven days, but 

 never mind that.) The difficulty in decid- 

 ing as to the age of the occupant of the cell 

 is so great, and the work involved is so 

 much, that I think I would rather shift all 

 at the end of seven days, and then if "one 

 in four or five would send out an after- 

 swarm I would hive the after-swarms and 

 unite them where they would do the most 

 good. Altho Mr. Deneen 's way might be 

 easier for him, I don't believe it would be 

 for me. 



On ])age 360 Miss Fowls says: "All but 

 the best queen-cell are torn down, and the 

 old brood-chamber is placed be- 

 side the new hive, with its entrance in the 

 (>]>Iiosite direction so that the retiiniing 

 swarm will be prevented from finding its en- 

 trance and will, accordingly, enter the new 

 hive on the old stand. During the following 

 week the old hive is gradually turned about, 

 moving it a little each time until at the end 

 of the week it is close beside the new hive 

 and facing in the same direction." Now 

 'fess up, lona, honest Injun, isn't that some- 

 thing you never put in jiractice, but merely 

 repeat what some one else has given? What's 



