1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1805 



seetious; ami the fact that almost every sep- 

 arator had an attachment to some one sec- 

 tion was rather discouraging.' 



I asked Mr. Burt if he had not overcrowd- 

 ed these hives and supers: Init he thought 

 not more than he hail crowded the other 

 hives with fence separators. I endeavored 

 to explain to him that possibly this was a 

 peculiar season— that another year he would 

 get better results. But 

 he shook his head. If 

 the season had been at 

 all a good one he would 

 expect that the brace- 

 comb attachments 

 would have lieen even 

 more numerous. Wlien 

 Mr. Salisbury visited 

 us a few days ago 1 

 called his attenlicm to 

 the poor results secured 

 by our neighbor, Mr. 

 ban. with llie Betsing- 

 er separatoii. "Very 

 strange," he said, for 

 he had only recently 

 looked over several 

 thousand pounds of S. 

 D. House's honey — as 

 pretty honey as one 

 ever saw, and not a 

 burr-(;orabed separator 

 or section in the lot. 



It will be remem- 

 bered that Mr. C. H. , •, 

 Dibbern. of Milan, 111., reported how he 

 had results about the same as those here 

 shown by Mr. Burt, and that he cautioned 

 bee-keepers against pinning their faith on 

 the wire-eloth separator. Years ago, when 

 this wire-cloth separator was first brought 

 out, there was complaint that bees were in- 

 clined to make brace-comb attachments to it 

 and it was condemned. 



This difference in experience we may 

 have to attribute to locality, for I certainly 

 saw as pretty fancy comb honey at Mr. S. D. 

 House's apiaries two years ago as I have 

 ever seen anywhere; and yet in our own lo- 

 cality, at least last season, with the same 

 device and separator, the results were any 

 thing but satisfactory. Perhaps manage- 

 ment is also a factor: if so, possibly Mr. House 

 could show where the trouble is. 



Ijees soon prepare to swarm again. Shaking 

 on starters docs control in nearly all locali- 

 ties. Nor will plenty of room in the comb at 

 any or all times prevent swarming. That 

 idea is one of the most commonly credited 

 fallacies before the bee-keeping public. A 

 colony headed by a young queen reared m 

 the same colony that season is not safe from 

 swarming. 



Fit 



SAVARMING-THE CONTROL OF IT. 



AVhat fan be Expected from Some of the 

 Recent Plans Described. 



BY K. F. ATWATEK. 



Perhaps Mr. Doolittle is claiming too much 

 for his method of swarm control. It will 

 and does prove a failure in some localities. 

 The beginner had better go slow before adopt- 

 ing any method on a large scale until he 

 proves that the method can be used success- 

 fully in his locality. Shaking on empty 

 combs, combs of honey, or full sheets of 

 foundation, is too often a failure here, as the 



o —Some of the comb honey taken from a super using- wiru-cloth separat- 

 ors ; the bare spots show where the burr-combs were torn loose. 



A colony treated on the Alexander plan of 

 increase may send of¥ a swarm from the old 

 stand. A colony tiered up on the Alexander 

 plan of queen-mating may swarm from one 

 or more of the bodies, or one or more may 

 abscond. . . , u 



The Aikin system of alternating, " stretch- 

 ing," or interchanging cases will too often 

 only delay, not prevent, swarming. The 

 Simmins non-swarming system is of little 

 value here. Our queens and bees will ex- 

 tend their brood-nests ui)ward very readily, 

 but are reluctant to go down with brood or 

 for honey-storage or comb-building. When 

 conditions are very favorable for breeding 

 up, as thev were here this spring, none of 

 these mildly persuasive methods will control. 

 Either the Alexander method or the Doolit- 

 tle method of shaking on combs will hold 

 them until the flow arrives. What woukl 

 have happened to Doolittle's colonies if the 

 season had been such that his queens would 

 be seriously crowded if confined to 16 to 20 

 L. frames? Such ai'e the conditions which 

 we have been compelled to meet in four of 

 oixr eight apiaries this spring. Even in cx- 

 tracting-yards our usual methods of shaking 

 on combs or full sheets thej^e, would only de- 

 lav swarming about three weeks. If the 

 Doolittle treatment were combined with re- 

 queening it is possible that it might then be 

 successful. 



Meridian, Idaho. 



[You do not offer much encouragement on 

 swarm control. This is a case where local- 

 ity has a large intiuence.— Ed.] 



