210 



June, 1909. 



American T^ee Journal 



when the bloom had receded 4 or 5 

 miles, thus allowing the bloom to fail 

 for a distance of a mile or so beyond 

 where the bees had last gathered nec- 

 tar, they would never go to the hill- 

 too, be the honey ever so plenty there. 



The solution seems to be that after 

 the rain they go to the trees where 

 they had last procured nectar, and find- 

 ing" none, nor any near by, conclude that 

 the harvest is over, without going over 

 the strip where the honey has failed to 

 that which is beyond. From this, our 

 correspondent and other readers will 

 see that Doolittle would have no hesi- 

 tancv in increasing bees in the home 

 apiary from 100 to 200 colonies, as the 

 desired number might be; and also that 

 I believe that the i ■/-mile-flight idea is 

 also a fallacy. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



N0.6 -Colorado Bee-Keeping 



BY K. C. AIKIN. 



I closed article No. 5 with urging 

 strong colonies for comb-honey produc- 

 tion, and will repeat the same to start 

 this one. That means that swarming 

 must be kept down, if possible, and 

 there is where we have to hustle. 



If the reader has forgotten what I 

 said in No. 3 about swarm control, let 

 him turn to that article and re-read, 

 especially the latter part. There I gave 

 a sure method of swarm control, rather 

 two plans that put the matter under 

 absolute control so that one might know 

 just what he was doing. On pages s; 

 and 58 of the same issue, wherein is 

 printed my No. 3 article will be found 

 one on the subject of swarm control by 

 Mr. Charles Trout. He writes from 

 California. Mr. Trout gives some good 

 ideas, but in very many places they 

 will not work. We have been for about 

 30 years talking about breeding out the 

 swarming impulse. I got cured of that 

 false idea about 20 years ago. Bees 

 are going to follow instinct, and that 

 elusive thing — or rather unexplainable 

 thing — is influenced by conditions or en- 

 vironment. You can have bees bred for 

 years without so much as a single swarm 

 for many generations, and then just let 

 the proper conditions prevail and they 

 will swarm good and plenty, and dis- 

 gust their owner who thought he had 

 bred out the swarming impulse. The 

 swarming impulse lies in conditions un- 

 der which the colony finds itself, not 

 in the blood of bees that have forgotten 

 how. The same bees rarely ever swarm 

 twice, so it is not a habit or anything 

 learned or forgotten. 



Mr. Trout speaks of 8 or 9 weeks 

 before the flow having strong colonies, 

 and of the proceeds of 2 queens for 

 nearly 3 weeks, but we cannot have 

 either in very much of Colorado, and 

 I doubt if anywhere in the State. See 

 what I have told along that line in arti- 

 cle No. 5. 



Mr. Trout tells us that "from 54 colo- 

 nies run for comb honey I removed an 

 average of 150 pounds of fancy comb 

 honey. There were no swarms, and the 

 season was very poor." Mr. T. starts 

 queens 8 or 9 weeks before the flow. 

 That is fine where it can be done and 

 get good queens, and the cells are 



placed in nursery cages to develop until 

 ripe. Let me quote again from Mr. 

 Trout from the 4th paragraph, first col- 

 umn, on page 58 : 



"When the virgins are about ready to hatch" 

 [referring to those previously started and now 

 in nursery cages], "I go through the apiary, 

 givincT combs of sealed honey wherever needed, 

 and placing the queen above the excluder. 

 Upon tlte virgins hatching they are allowed 

 to run in at the entrances of the hives. This 

 is about 5 weeks before the honey-flow." 



Now, if the reader will turn to my 

 article on page 52 of the same issue 

 (Feb.), and see the two plans there 

 given and compare them with this of 

 Mr. Trout, you will see that I advocate 

 much the same thing. If only I could 

 have Mr. Trout's conditions I would 

 change my directions somewhat, but I 

 cannot have those queens to run in 5 

 weeks before the flow, and many times 

 cannot have enough bees to utilize the 

 queens if I were to buy them. His plan 

 is fine where it can be worked, and 

 he can depend on it almost every time 

 under the conditions he gives as pre- 

 vailing that year. I would warn be- 

 ginners, and all who will be inclined 

 to take too seriously his statements that 

 his locality is a very poor one. I know 

 enough about bees and honev-flows and 

 localities to know that while his plan 

 is a very good one where it can be ap- 

 plied, it does not account fully by any 

 manner of means for that iSO-pound 

 yield of fancy comb honey. It is no or- 

 dinary locality, or season, when such an 

 average as that can be obtained. 



Notice again that he removes the 

 brood from the brood-chamber, giving 

 instead dry combs or foundation to the 

 young queen and takes away the old 

 one. Not only that, but he puts a su- 

 per over this young queen with her dry 

 coinbs or foundation, then above this 

 the old brood. He does not say, but 

 I infer that he keeps the queen-ex- 

 cluder down below the super just on top 

 of the brood-nest — at least that is what 

 i would do. Why, that would be al- 

 most certain to control swarming in any 

 locality, you can depend on it for a 

 decidedly nvikuble rule. I say "rule" 

 advisedly : there are excentional cases 

 always, but it is my firm conviction that 

 the plan given above will so nearly ap- 

 proach absolute control that it may be 

 taken as a rule to tie to. 



But \-our location and conditions mav 

 not admit of the full aoplication of 

 those principles (rather, I should say 

 t'lans^. but any reader will do well to 

 get to the bottom of the facts or factors 

 underlying so that you can clearly dis- 

 cern the whys for the results Mr. Trout 

 obtained. I am putting much stress on 

 this problem of swarm-control for it is 

 vital, and when we get the prineil'les un- 

 der our minds' eontrol zve are in posi- 

 tion to control szvarnting in almost any 

 location, or under almost any conditions. 



Again, about Mr. Trout's putting the 

 super over that young queen with her 

 dry combs or foundation — no doubt it is 

 foundation when he runs for section 

 honey, then the outting the mass of 

 brood the colony has gotten up to this 

 time above the super — this, too, needs 

 analysis for very many readers, and es- 

 pecially for beginners, else they may 

 make a had break and say hard words 

 of Mr. Trout and his plan. He tells us 



he removes that brood from above the 

 sections when the flow starts, for note 

 that the combination was made several 

 days before the flow started, and the 

 bees having been passing up and down 

 through that super of sections they are 

 ready to, and will, begin work there 

 at once. 



Now, that would be true with such 

 colonies as he must tiow have as the 

 result of many weeks' breeding with 

 the old queen and supplemented by a 

 young queen for "nearly 3 weeks," as 

 he tells us. I remind you that he 

 has unusually strong colonies, and his 

 bees must of necessity go into that su- 

 per, or get outside the hive to turn 

 around. And not only has he strong 

 colonies beyond what the most of us 

 are able under ordinary conditions to 

 obtain, but he has them of all ages, 

 for note that they have been breeding 

 quite freely for many weeks ; he has 

 simply a host of fielders as well as a 

 superabundance of nurses or inside 

 workers. If there is any honey to be 

 had they get it, and if gotten tliere will 

 surely be work in that super as well as 

 in the brood-chamber. The only thing 

 lacking to make a record-breaking yield 

 and of fancy finish is good weather 

 and abundance of nectar. 



But suppose we have all these factors 

 except a lack of nectar, then most of 

 what the colony docs get will go into 

 that super all right, and there may be 

 some very fair finished sections. Next 

 take away a lot of his bees, reducing 

 them to normal strength and not much 

 flow — simply a normal colony and a 

 moderate flow, and results will not be 

 so good ; and, again, with rainy days 

 occasional!}', or any other cause that 

 may make the work intermittent, and 

 results are still worse. So we may trace 

 or analyze a little further down, and 

 we may find what thousands upon thou- 

 sands of bee-keepers all over our land 

 are finding — hard to get the bees into 

 the super at all; or, if there, they will 

 not work in them, or they put all the 

 honey into the brood-combs and crowd 

 out the queen from her norinal breed- 

 ing and the forces of bees from their 

 natural occupations. What else could 

 we expect but that they will get in the 

 notion of swarming, aird hunt more con- 

 genial conditions in a new home? 



Can you grasp these truths? Can you 

 analyze the orinciples and put them into 

 practice? Can you see that if you get 

 results you must have conditions, and 

 if those conditions do not come you 

 must for yourself make them if you 

 can ? Mr. Trout has evidently time and 

 conditions to get a host of bees ready 

 for his flow, then he proceeds to put his 

 colony into a condition — I say he puts 

 them into a condition altogether against 

 swarming by taking away the brood, 

 and increases that condition by having 

 a young queen with them, whereas most 

 natural swarms have an old queen with 

 them. 



See that the advice I gave in No. 3. 

 on page 52 for February, was. in one 

 case, to remove all brood but one comb, 

 and the queen, too. Such a plan would 

 work fine in Mr. Trout's case. This 

 puts the colony in a condition that the 

 apiarist has absolute control, for he 

 knows just what they will do in the 



