June. 1909. 



American Vee Journal 



organize sufficient brood to warrant its 

 spread. 



Should honey not be coming in fast 

 enough in view of a dearth of a source 

 of honey, or commonly because of the 

 weak condition of the nuclei after di- 

 vision, feeding may be practiced, care 

 always being taken to guard against 

 possible robbing. The supplying to 

 such nuclei of frames partly filled with 

 sealed honey will perhaps be found 

 to be a safer form of feeding than by 

 actual feeding with syrup. From time 

 to time such weak nuclei my be profit- 

 ably strengthened with emerging brood 

 in patches of the right size to insure 

 breeding within the cluster, taken from 

 stronger colonies. 



Sh.\ken Swarms. 



The securing of increase or tiding 

 bees through the swarming season by 

 making what are called shaken swarms 

 is a system, as I have said, applica- 

 ble when the production of comb honey 

 is sought. Having built one's colonies 

 up to a crowded strength, just prior 

 to the main honey-flow is the time 

 selected for making shaken swarms. 

 The weather should be warm and set- 

 tled and a rapid flow of honey should 

 be on — both desirable conditions for 

 ■ the producing of nice comb honey. 



The colony to be shaken is set oflf 

 the stand and the empty hive filled with 

 frames containing nothing but narrow 

 starters put in its place on the old 

 stand. Then removing 3 or 4 frames 

 from the center of the empty hive, the 

 combs one after another from the par- 

 ent colony are gently shaken in the 

 empty hive by a jarring motion accom- 

 plished by striking the fleshy portion 

 of the hands onto the end edges of the 

 hive, the hands slipped palm inward 

 along the end-bars to the rests of the 

 top-bar. It is the aim to secure only 

 the older bees. It will be found that 

 the bees that have flown will shake off 

 easily and that the young bees, not hav- 

 ing command of their wings, will ad- 

 here more tenaciously to the combs and 

 so escaping being shaken, will be thus 

 left behind to brood and care for the 

 developing bees of the parent colony, 

 which otherwise might become chilled. 



The parent colony is then removed 

 and set up on a new stand. .\ super 

 with full sheets of foundation in the 

 sections — full sheets are always to be 

 used in producing a fine grade of comb 

 honey — never starters — or better still 

 drawn sections, may then be placed on 

 the new colony. A strong colony so 

 prepared with no room to store honey 

 below and with full sheets or drawn 

 combs above, will in a good honey-flow 

 fill the supers rapidly and finish sec- 

 tions cleanly in appearance. Under 

 such circumstances usually good work- 

 er-combs will be built below; this will 

 always be true if a young queen of the 

 current year's rearing be in the colony. 

 The working force in this plan of 

 division may be augmented as previ- 

 ously described by shifting the parent 

 colony from one side to the other until 

 entirely depleted in numbers. Where a 

 limited amount of increase is desired, 

 shaking 2 colonies into one may be 

 practiced, thus getting three from two. 

 If this plan is to be followed, one or 

 both of the colonies should be made 



queenless, and. for a couple of days 

 previous to shaking, should be grad- 

 ually brought close beside each other. 

 Just before shaking, the bees should 

 be smoked thoroughly and jarred se- 

 verely until they become demoralized. 

 Peaceful union will be enhanced if the 

 bees are sprinkled with thin syrup, or, 

 if new honey is in the combs in abund- 

 ance, the desired result is usually ac- 

 complished in shaking without resort- 

 ing to such use of the syrup. If both 

 colonies are queenless after the hive is 

 put together, and before all is quiet, 

 a virgin queen may be run in at the 

 entrance, thus supplying the colony with 

 p. young queen, insuring good comb- 

 building and further removing the pos- 

 sibility of swarming. 



Thh Prevention of Sw.\rmixg. 



In the foregoing discussion of the 

 various methods of natural and forced 

 swarming I have alluded to certain 

 methods of preventing swarming indi- 

 rectly in that no increase results ; but 

 always it will be observed tiiat this end 

 has been accomplished through some 

 form of swarming, be it natural or 

 forced. 



1 come now to consider a system 

 for th.e prevention of swarming in real- 

 ity, both in process and results. This 

 is something that many bee-keepers who 

 do not desire increase are seeking for, 

 and somctliing which to the bee-master 

 is relatively easy of accomplishment. 



In the opening of this article, in 

 speaking of the swarming impulse 

 among bees, I presented five conditions 

 tending to incite bees to swarm. With 

 these five conditions in mind the pre- 

 vention of swarming resolves itself into 

 a rigid negation or preclusion of any 

 one of these five conditions arising in 

 any one of our colonies of bees. It 

 must be understood that this statement 

 does not refer to "remedial" swarming, 

 but strictly to "preventive" swarming, 

 namely, that it is not sufficient to ap- 

 ply a remedy to a colony w-hen it be- 

 gins to show active signs of prepara- 

 tion for swarming, but that all meas- 

 ures to be preventive are to be taken 

 prior to any steps on the part of the 

 bees to prepare directly for swarming. 

 The first condition that I named as 

 liable to induce swarming is an over- 

 populous colony. By an over-populous 

 colony I do not mean that the colony 

 is actually too strong, for I never had a 

 honey colony of bees too strong for 

 me ; but I mean that the colony in ques- 

 tion is too populous for the space it 

 occupies, leading to an over-heated con- 

 dition of the hive, resulting in bees 

 hanging out. To prevent this occur- 

 rence in a colony, room— and by room 

 1 mean empty space — should be given 

 between the brood-chamber and the en- 

 trance. This can be done by raising 

 the l)rood-chamber up and supplying the 

 bees with a half-depth story contain- 

 ing starters or a full story with either 

 starters or full sheets of foundation. 



The second condition conducive to 

 swarming is a lack of room for the 

 storage of incoming honey. The pre- 

 ventive measure here is another top 

 story, or the removal of honey if it is 

 ripened and ready to come off, by ex- 

 tracting. 



The third condition is an outgrowth 



of the second, and I Iiave characterized 

 it as an inhibited tendency to secrete 

 wa.x. In giving the colony a ventilated 

 story below we have provided some 

 space for the building of comb, and 

 further, in giving the bees more room 

 for thes torage of honey, we have re- 

 moved somewhat the factor leading to 

 wa.x-secretion. A further chance for 

 wax-secretion and comb-building may 

 be given the colony by alternating in 

 the top story sheets of foundation with 

 the extracting combs, a system that may 

 be profitably extended also in some in- 

 stances to the brood-chamber. 



The fourth condition is a restricted 

 queen in ovipositing, which may be due 

 to either an excess of brood in the 

 colony, or a clogging of the brood-nest 

 with honey or pollen, or both. Again, 

 by an excess of brood in the colony I 

 do not wish to be understood to mean 

 actually too much brood in the colony, 

 for a good share of the efforts of every 

 bee-master, when a crop is assured, are 

 directed to devising means for, and 

 bringing about, every favorable condi- 

 tion practicable to promote the rearing 

 of all the brood possible within every 

 honey colony. I wish to be understood 

 to mean an excess of brood for the 

 size of the brood-chamber or space 

 available for the queen to operate in ; 

 and the remedy is manifestly to give 

 the queen more room to operate in — 

 citlicr a larger brood-chamlier. or more 

 room in tlie brood-chamber by setting 

 up frames of unsealed brood, or by 

 giving over to the queen an additional 

 story for a brood apartment. 



The fifth and last but none the less 

 condition liable to increase the tend- 

 ency to swarm is the presence in the 

 colony of a queen of a previous year's 

 rearing. I advocate the requeening of 

 every honey colony as early in the 

 spring as possible, with a queen of the 

 current year's rearing, to be not only 

 a necessity for the adequate control 

 of swarming, but an essential of prac- 

 tice indigenous to the highest success 

 in keeping bees for profit. 



Crane's Improved Shipping- 

 Case 



BV J. E. CR.\NE. 



Tlic problem of shipping comb honey 

 has always been one of considerable 

 importance, it being one of the heaviest 

 and at the same time one of the most 

 fragile of rural products. I will not 

 stop here to tell of the various devices 

 used to prevent breakage. Suffice it to 

 say, that they have all proved to some 

 extent defective, or too cumbrous or ex- 

 pensive fully to meet the necessities of 

 the case. 



The packing of 6 or 8 small cases 

 holding say 150 pounds of honey in a 

 heavy crate with straw or other siitiilar 

 material to break the jar, and so ar- 

 ranged with handles as to be readily 

 carried by two men is perhaps the best. 

 .Mow if the freight should be 50 cents 

 per hundred, and this extra crate with 

 packing weighs 30 pounds more, the 

 freiglit on this crate would be 12 cents, 

 while the cost of lumber and the mak- 

 intr of it would be. say 25 cents more, 

 so that our cost of shipping honey 



