THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



101 



There is a colony of bees that 

 belongs to my neighbor " B, " 

 who has had it apparently for 

 the chickens to roost on and 

 over for several years, and not 

 a taste of honey has he ever got 

 from it. Well, he sent it to my 

 apiary the first of last March, to 

 have the combs put in working 

 orcfer ! "Working order?" Cer- 

 tainly ! what are combs fit for if 

 the}^ cannot be handled ? He was 

 to have half of the surplus honey 

 for his part. Well, I had to feed 

 them. " Feed them ?" Certainly ; 

 they were short of stores and bees 

 must eat as well as other living 

 creatures, straighten the combs, 

 and give them an Italian queen in 

 the place of the weak native queen. 

 " Weak native queen?" Certainly, 

 there is as much difference in the 

 quality of the queens as there is in 

 your farm animals. Well, he has 

 already got about forty pounds of 

 honey as his share. " Forty 

 pounds ?" Yes, there stands a col- 

 ony right over there that is of the 

 best imported stock ; the bees were 

 permitted to swarm just once. 

 "Permitted?" Yes, certainly, 

 what is the bee-master for, if his 

 duty is not to control his bees? 

 Well, that colony has given 172 

 pounds of honey and the swarm 

 gave, say, 121 pounds. You see 

 that colony and its increase gave 

 293 pounds of honey worth, at my 

 apiary store, 15 cents per pound 

 or $43.95, as the profit from one 

 colony, valued at $10. Others 

 have done nearly as well. In fact, 

 every colony which I was able to 

 control and wrest from the grasp 



of the swarm fiend, who visited my 

 apiary with vengeance in his mien 

 the present season, has paid at least 

 200 per cent on the capital in- 

 vested, including labor. There 

 stand my first six swarms, they 

 came off' in good time to take the 

 advantage of the honey harvest. 

 Well, they have given 600 pounds 

 of surplus honey, or an average of 

 100 pounds each — worth $90.00 — 

 the proceeds from six swarms. 

 Others that came oft' later have 

 given 50 pounds and some less. 

 Did the whole apiary do that well? 

 No. Quite a number of colonies 

 became so demented with the 

 " swarming fever," that it was im- 

 possible to control them till they 

 Avere completely exhausted and in 

 this way they frittered away the 

 best of the season and hence gave 

 only 20 or 30 pounds of honey to 

 the colon3\ 



Y'ou see it depends on the watch- 

 fulness and skill of the apiarist as 

 to whether he gets good or poor 

 results from his bees. I can gen- 

 erally control swarming to a good 

 extent. Of course there are ex- 

 ceptional cases. The present 

 season has brought results differ- 

 ing from anything in the swarming 

 line that has ever come under my 

 observation. All the remedies 

 have failed this season. If I cut 

 out the queen cells the bees would 

 set all general and established rule 

 at defiance and swarm anyway, 

 leaving the bee-master to supply 

 the old colony with brood from 

 other hives together with a queen. 

 Or, if you moved the parent colony 

 to a new stand .to draw off' the 



