710 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



out their tongues, as has been attributed to 

 me by various apiarian journals. 



But some years ago the news spread 

 through the German bee journals that in 

 America they had bred long-tongued bees 

 which worked on red clover. Such a queen 

 was said to cost one thousand marks, and Mr. 

 Freyhoff, my greatest opposer, expressed 

 the view that, for those who desired to 

 possess such queens, there remained nothing 

 further than to dig right deeply down into 

 their pockets. Well, the tide changed, and 

 long-tongued bees were scoffed at and term- 

 ed an American humbug. 



The people who wrote this had never seen 

 such bees, nor could they form any opinion 

 of a man who, on the basis of his actual ex- 

 perience, could express such unfavorable 

 views. I could, therefore, set this down as 

 merely efforts on their part to wag their 

 tongues wisely. Why should it not be possi- 

 ble to breed long-tongued bees? Breeders 

 of animals have done much greater things 

 than this. I resolved, therefore, to investi- 

 gate the matter thoroughly, hence procured 

 the addresses of American breeders and or- 

 dered queens. The test of these could not 

 be conducted at one place only. It is well 

 known that plants which are very productive 

 of honey in one place, as, for example, lin- 

 den and locust trees, at other places do not 

 produce honey at all, or only a very poor 

 quality. Thus, here in Marburg the cele- 

 brated linden honey is of a miserable quali- 

 ty. With the red clover such a condition 

 would have to be taken into account, par- 

 ticularly since, in the case of this plant, the 

 nectar is very deep down in the corolla, and 

 even under the most favorable condition only 

 a part of it can be obtained. In this case, 

 therefore, the variations of soil and climate, 

 which are of such importance in the secre- 

 tion of nectar, must be taken into account 

 particularly, hence the test of the American 

 bees could not be confined to one place alone. 

 It needed to be carried out in as many 

 places as possible. Therefore I offered 

 queens to oiher bee-keepers; and as I am 

 only a poor little schoolmaster I could not 

 give away the queens, but was obliged to 

 put a price upon them. 



ARTIFICIAL INCREASE. 



Prevention of Swarming With and Without 



Increase and Production of Comb Honey. 



An Excellent Review of the Subject. 



BY L. STACHELHAUSEN. 



The prevention of natural swarms is a 

 problem for every bee-keeper who has a 

 number of out-apiaries, especially if comb 

 honey is produced. Lately different plans 

 for this purpose were published, and claimed 

 as new systems of management. 



According to localities, these managements 

 must be different, depending on the time 

 when bees would swarm naturally, and 

 when the main honey-flow commences. In 

 my locality, in most years at least, the 



swarming-time is four or more weeks before 

 the main honey-flow, consequently the pre- 

 vention of swarming is quite another opera- 

 tion from the preparing of a colony for the 

 best condition for storing honey in sections. 

 In other localities these two operations can 

 be combined, because the swarming-time is 

 just before or at beginning of the main 

 honey-flow. 



For prevention of swarming we have dif- 

 ferent ways. The first one is to use large 

 hives (double deckers), in which the brood- 

 nest can be expanded in every direction, and 

 the queen is never crowded. In many local- 

 ities swarming can be prevented entirely in 

 this way. In other localities it is delayed 

 for some weeks at least. If this is not suf- 

 ficient, another way is to take from the col- 

 ony some brood, preferably capped brood, 

 or some bees. With this material taken 

 from several colonies we must form new 

 swarms, if we have no other place to use it 

 profitably. 



The taking away of brood- combs, and re- 

 placing them with frames of foundation or 

 empty combs, is simple enough, and every 

 bee-keeper knows how to do it. 



The critical point is the way in which we 

 take some worker-bees from a colony. I 

 know of three different ways. 



1. We shake or brush the bees from some 

 or all the brood- combs (shook swarms). 



2. We draw some bees from a colony (1) 

 by setting a new hive on the stand of this 

 colony and removing colony 1 to a new 

 stand. We will call such swarms "flight 

 swarms" till somebody finds a better name. 



3. We draw some bees from a colony by 

 the following operation: A hive-body with 

 some brood-combs is placed on top of a colo- 

 ny over a queen-excluder. In a few hours 

 these brood- combs will be covered with 

 mostly young bees; the hive-body is re- 

 moved, and so some young bees are drawn 

 from the colony (drawn swarms). 



All these three ways have advantages and 

 disadvantages. Further, we have some va- 

 riations whether we give to the new swarm 

 more or less brood- combs; further, the 

 swarm can get a young or the old queen 

 from the hive from which the bees are 

 taken, or no queen at all, and so may be 

 forced to raise a queen from the brood given 

 to it. According to these differences the 

 swarm as well as the parent colony must be 

 managed differently. It is plain that many 

 combinations of these different operations 

 are possible, but no part of it will be new. 



In respect to "drawn swarriis" I will re- 

 mark that sometimes it is desirable to form 

 a colony with capped brood only for the pur- 

 pose of having it hopelessly queenless. This 

 can easily be performed by this operation, if 

 the brood-combs remain over the excluder 

 for nine or ten days. I have used this plan 

 for many years for preparing colonies for 

 cell-building. As soon as the cells are 

 started, the hive-body with the brood-combs 

 is set back on the excluder. 



By the " shook-swarm " plan it is not nec- 

 essary that we take the bees from a single col- 



