1058 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



BEE-ESCAFES. 



These long spiral cages are good bee-es- 

 capes. Many who are using them prefer 

 them to all "others, especially in handling 

 comb honeJ^ I use them altogether, and can 



via. 4. 



rid clumps of coml) honey of their l)ees in 

 less than half the time that I can with any 

 other device that I kntnv of. It is nei-essary 

 to know how to use them (see Fig. 4). 



CARING FOR OUR BEES. 



A Practical Way to do it After tliey Have 



Swarmed; How to Work in Hanuoiiy 



with Nature. 



BY E. W. ALEXANDEK. 



While many are trying to invent some 

 unnatural complicated hive, with the erro- 

 neous belief that it will prevent bees from 

 ilesiring to swarm, and still others are rec- 

 ommending equally unnatural methods in 

 spending valuable ' time in changing their 

 brood from hive to hive all over the apiary, 

 in hopes that they can overcome one of the 

 sti-ongest natural laws that the Creator has 

 stamped indelil)ly on our bees. I for one will 

 try to use the intelligence God has given me 

 to work in harmony with his law, and see 

 if, by so iloing, we "can not accomplish far 

 more, and at the same time do it much easi- 

 er, than to work continually in discord. 



If, in the past, man hatl only let reason 

 harmonize a little more with natural law the 

 world would have been the better for it. 

 There is one thing that I have noticed re- 

 cently that I was sorry to see; that is, some 

 go so far as to say tha"t swarming is a curse 

 to bee-keeping, and that it is a bane to our 

 welfare. 



Let us consider which of all the many the- 

 ories and methods that are now before us is 

 the practical one to care for a colony that 

 has just swarmed, in order that they can all 



be united again, and at the same time do 

 away with any desire to swarm again that 

 season. From a long and extensive experi- 

 ence along this line we hnd the following 

 method far l)etter than any other that has 

 ever been made pul:)lic. It "is this: 



HOW TO MAKE THE SWAKM CONTENTED. 



We will suppose the colony is swarming, 

 and we give them a hive whicli has its frames 

 filled with foundation. This will give them 

 a t-hance to use up the material for wax that 

 is fast accumulating in their bodies: and aft- 

 er they are all in the new hive we will ))ring 

 it Imck to the parent colony and set it on 

 top, facing an opposite direction. This gives 

 them a new location to work from, and is of 

 much importance. Now leave them undis- 

 turjaed until about night of the fourth ilay, 

 then just before dark set the new swarm to 

 one side out of the way and remove every 

 comb from the old colony and shake the 

 bees in the grass two or three feet from their 

 hive, and Ije sure you remove every queen- 

 cell from their combs and return them to 

 the old liive: then shake the comlxs of the 

 new swarm on top of the other iiees in the 

 grass: look up their queen and let her run 

 mto the okl hive with some of her own been. 

 Now put on an excluder: and if you are rim- 

 ning your bees for extracteil honey set the 

 hive of new drawn coml)s on top of the ex- 

 chuler, and the colony will all work in har- 

 mony together. If you are running your 

 bees for t-omb honey, put on supers of' sec- 

 tions hlled with founilation. This will ena- 

 ble them to continue liuilding comix which 

 has much to do with their becoming satisfied. 

 Now as to why this method is a success: I 

 will say it is all natural. First, the bees have 

 been gratified in their desire to swarm: their 

 queen has returned, during the four days 

 she was in the new hive, to her normal con- 

 dition of egg-laying; the bees have and are 

 working oft the accumiilated wax that na- 

 ture hatl given them, and they l)ei*ome satis- 

 lietl with a new location: the old colony that 

 had a lot of young queens maturing has lost 

 them all, they hardly know how. ami gladly 

 welcome their mother home again, while the 

 bees that (constituted the swarm are so ile- 

 moralized ))y losing their location that they 

 soon form a line down one side of the hive 

 to the old entrance. This gives us again a 

 strong full colony ready to settle down to 

 work: and, if properly careil for, they will 

 gather more honey than under any other 

 conditions. With us, not five per cent when 

 treated as above show any desire to swarm 

 again during the season. I will ailmit that 

 he who is competent to care for only a few 

 colonies may prevent swarming, and' secure 

 a fair surplus by this endless amount of tin- 

 kering with his brood: but it is unnatural, dis- 

 couraging, and demoralizing to the bees, and, 

 if practiced by our extensive honey-producers, 

 would i-equire so much help that, from a 

 money point of view, it could not be other- 

 wise than a Hat failure. 



I do not like to tear down the theories 

 of any man without substituting something 



