1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



325 



causes of natural swarming. Allow us to 

 lay down a low rules which we will de- 

 velop afterwards in regard to these causes. 

 The swarming impulse is generally found: 



1st. En a colony of bees that contains a 

 large amount ol drone comb, in which 

 drones are reared early in the season. 



3d. In a colony containing an old queen 

 or a queen who' is losing her proliticness 



on account ofa.ee or some otnerrenson, 

 and whom the bees try t:) replace. 



3d. In a colony that has mosl or all ot 

 its comb occupied with honey, brood and 



pollen, even if that colony has a large 

 empty space left. 



4th. in some colonies that have already 

 swarmed a few days previously, or in 

 colonies that have prepared to swarm, even 

 if the colony has been divided, when then 

 intentions were discovered by their keeper. 

 Let us bear in mind that we must 

 always have in view the nature of the bee, 

 whenever we inquire into this question ot 

 swarming, as it isonly through their natu- 

 ral instincts that we can control them. 



In regard to the tirst question, nearly all 

 the old box-hive bee-keepers will tell you 

 that a colony that rears many drones is 

 more apt to swarm than one that does not 

 rear any. Bee-keepers however, differ in 

 their explanation of the influence of the 

 drones in this ease. Some hold that when 

 the bees intend to swarm, they rear drones 

 largely, to provide for the fertilization of 

 the young queen. Others say that drones 

 are only reared in good seasons and that 

 in such seasons the bees are more apt to 

 swarm. We incline to think that al- 

 though both of these reasons have weight 

 in the matter, the main influence of the 

 drones on swarming is due to the fact that 

 they bother and annoy the bees with their 

 useless presence, and help to make the 

 colony uncomfortable by their running 

 and tumbling right and left in the busiest 

 time of the day, and especially by gene- 

 rating a considerable amount of heat, 

 without ever helping even to ventilate the 

 hive. , 



Be this as it may, we can sately say and 

 our readers will agree in this, that to re- 

 move all or most of the drone comb to re- 

 place it with worker comb, is one of the 

 requirements for the prevention of natu- 

 ral swarming. 



The second question in regard to the 

 age of the queen, will perhaps not seem 

 so plain at first sight, and still we con- 

 sider it as very important. Most bee- 

 keepers know that when a queen lose>, 

 some of her prolificness, the bees usually 

 build queen-cells to replace her. They do 

 not always wait till she is too old to be of 

 further service, but sometimes try to re- 

 ■ place her when she is still vigorous and 

 only somewhat decreasing in her laying 

 capacities. 



In such instances if the young queen is 

 reared during a scarcity of honey, they 

 sometimes keep the two queens side by 

 side for weeks and perhaps months, hut 

 when this queen-rearing is attempted dur- 

 ing the honey months, it is an impetus to 

 the swarming fever. The old queen then 

 leaves with a swarm and this colony hav- 

 ing acquired the swarming impulse will 

 swarm again and again, sometimes to the 

 bee-keeper's detriment and also to its 

 own loss. On the other hand if the colony 

 has a young prolific queen which they do 

 not wish to replace, they will not build 

 queen-cells unless other causes force 

 them to it. 



The third question is the main one 

 in the case, and the cause of most of the 

 swarming. Not only will a colony swarm 

 when the hive is full of combs, but very 

 often also when all the comb in the hive 

 is full, even if the hive be only partly 

 rilled with comb. In this latter case, the 

 cause is undoubtedly to be found in the 

 fact that when the harvest is very plenti- 

 ful the bees find every comer crowded and 

 have to remain idle in order to digest the 

 honey and transform it into comb. This 

 is an annoyance to them undoubtedly, and 

 they make preparations for swarming. 

 But we have never seen bees swarm 

 when enough empty comb had been pro- 

 vided for them from the beginning of the 

 honey harvest, when the two first require- 

 ments had already been complied with. 

 When the bees are allowed to acquire the 

 swamiingfever however, from some cause 

 or other, we have never been able to find 

 means to prevent their swarming, no mat- 

 ter how much room was given them and 

 sometimes yvhen divided up in 3 or 4 

 pieces each of these divisions would cast 

 a swarm and make things only worse. It 

 is, therefore, very important to have these 

 rules complied with before the honey sea- 

 son begins. 



For the last 15 years we have kept bees 

 in large hives, larger than the average of 

 bee-hives in the country, and we only had 

 5 per cent, of natural swarms, except in 

 extraordinary swarming seasons, but un- 

 til about 4 years ago, we had never fur- 

 nished our bees with all the comb that 

 they could possibly use in the best honey 

 season. Since that time we have seen ex- 

 traordinary swarming seasons, among our 



box-hive bee-keepers, the present season deadly enemy, and will tell you that "bees 



■ " il I . . 1 . 1 . I iilmike.' , * ■ , , i l 1 . I ^ 1 1 I I i t I f I j i [ 11 



especially, having more than doubled 

 their apiaries, and we have been enabled 

 to keep the natural swarming to about 3 or 

 4 per cent. 



Discussion helps progress. In the tore- 



going we only give our experience in the 



matter and now desire to hear of the ex- 

 perience of others. Such is the aim ot 

 this essay. 

 Hamilton, III. 



Rev. L. Johnson, Kentucky, does 

 not favor dividing or artificial swarm- 

 ing. When :i colony develops a 

 swarming tendency, be removes it to 

 a new stand and places an empty hive 

 on the old one, in which he puts a 

 queen-cell or frame of eggs and larvse. 



T. F. Bingham, Abronia, Mich., 

 thinks the giving of empty combs 

 will not prevent swarming— that the 

 size of the hive has nothing to do with 

 swarming. . , 



C.F. Muth, Cincinnati, Ohio, thinks 

 that swarming is easily controlled by 

 extracting from the brood-chamber. In 

 running for comb honey they cannot 

 be so easily controlled at all times. 



Rev. L. Johnson does not think the 

 presence of drones has any influence 

 on swarming. 



Messrs. Muth and Cook agreed with 

 Mr. Dadant in thinking that drones 

 do exercise an influence. 



H. C. Hersperger, Keene, Ky., has 

 seen bees swarm under almost all cir- 

 cumstances ; but thinks swarming is 

 mostly attributable to the existence of 

 uncomfortable conditions in the hive. 

 At times, however, the swarming pro- 

 pensity seems almost unaccountable. 



Prof. Cook explained his method of 

 measuring the length of the tongue of 

 the honey bee. It is done by placing 

 feed on the surface of a pane of glass, 

 then covering with a surface of wire- 

 cloth, one end being elevated about 

 one-half an inch. By this means he 

 can get the tongue extruded its full 

 length when he suddenly decapitates 

 the bee. By this means he can meas- 

 ure it, with the aid of his microscope, 

 to the exactness of one-thousandth of 

 an inch. 



G. W. Demaree, of Kentucky, ad- 

 dressed the Convention on the 



always would sting them. 



With this state of things existing, and 

 the idea abroad in the land that honey is a 

 luxury wrung from unwilling and venge- 

 ful bees, at the risk of being stung to 

 death, we can comprehend why honey is 

 a " luxury," and not a staple article, as it 

 so richly deserves to be. The chief good 

 to be accomplished by the apicultural so- 

 cieties in the land, is to eradicate this un- 

 reasonable prejudice, and to establish bee 

 culture on a firmer basis, teaching the 

 people that bee culture is not only not 

 fraught with dangers above other employ- 

 ments, but is both pleasant and profitable. 

 Having accomplished this much, all minor 

 obstacles will vanish away, and the pro- 

 ducts of the apiary will take their place 

 along with other articles of commerce, 

 and will he "staple" in the fullest sense 

 of the world. 



Christiansburg, Ky. 



T.F.Bingham, of Michigan, took 

 exceptions to the subject matter of the 

 address of yesterday, on "Making 

 honey a staple product." He thinks 

 when honey shall have become astaple 

 product, and can be secured with the 

 same certainty, and sells at as quota- 

 ble prices as do the ordinary products 

 of the farm, bee-keeping will have 

 lost its attractiveness for most of 

 those who now pursue it. It is the 

 uncertainty of its production, and the 

 many risks now attending its pursuit, 

 that charms its votaries as does horse- 

 racing with the sportsman or stock- 

 gambling with the speculator. 



G. W. Demaree disagreed with the 

 gentleman in his ironical allusion to _ 

 the subject. In his own county he are not an exception to this rule. Nay, 



A. W. Windhorst, of Ferguson, 

 Mo., put in nomination St. Louis, 

 which was seconded, 



Dr. J. P. II. Brown, of (ieorgia, in 

 an eloquent appeal, Dominated Cin- 

 cinnati. 



C. F. Muth, of Cincinnati, seconded 

 the motion, and tendered the use of a 

 hall free from rent. 



Dr. N. P. Allen, Kentucky, spoke 

 in support of Cincinnati, and also ex- 

 tended an in vital ion to the members of 

 the Convent ion to attend the Kentucky 

 State Bee-Keepers' Convention, of 

 which he is President, to be held in 

 Louisville, Oct. 12 and 13. 



Nominations declared closed, and 

 Messrs. Poppleton, Of Iowa, and 

 Windhorst, of Missouri, were ap- 

 pointed tellers. 



An informal ballot being taken, St. 

 Louis received 8 votes, Toronto re- 

 ceived 12 votes, and Cincinnati 18 

 votes. 



On the second ballot, Toronto re- 

 ceived 12 votes, and Cincinnati 26. 



The time of meeting was left to the 

 decisionof the Executive Committee, 

 and to be announced through the bee- 

 papers in April next. 



An elaborate treatise by C. Dadant, 

 was read, on 



The Influence of Honey on Wintering. 



Nobody will question the influence of 

 the food on health. Plants cannot thrive 

 in a soil unsuited to them ; man, as well 

 asevery kind of animal, needs a food easily 

 digested and able to sustain life ; bees 



Obstacles to Progressive Bee-Culture. 



Bee culture, as a science, has made won 

 derful progress in the past few years, 

 keeping fully up with the improvements 

 of the age. But alas ! how few, compar- 

 atively speaking.have profited by the flood 

 of light that has flashed from the pens of 

 the many able writers who have espoused 

 the cause of the long-neglected honey bee. 

 Other branches of industry have pros- 

 pered, and held out their lights to the busy 

 world, which has been grasped and ap- 

 propriated bv it. Bee culture prospers 

 also, but it prospers as a "science," more 

 than as an industry. The part it has 

 played so far, as an industry, is the play- 

 ing of the part of a " light in a dark place." 



A well ordered apiary, managed intelli- 

 gently, in which the apiarist avails him- 

 self of all the helps and improvements 

 used by progressive bee-keepers, is a nov- 

 elty in most any community. 



How can we account for this state of 

 things ? Bee scientists are the most com- 

 municative class of men of which we have 

 any knowledge, giving away their dis- 

 coveries and inventions as freely as the 

 air and water. The fault is not here. No 

 branch of industry can boast of a greater 

 number of able writers, better or abler 

 written text books ; nor is any branch of 

 industry more ably and skillfully suppor- 

 ted by the press than apiculture is. The 

 fault is not chargable to the weakness of 

 those who have espoused the cause of the 

 honey bee ; but rather to the many and 

 formidable obstacles to progressive bee 

 culture as an industry. 



Chief among the obstacles to be re- 

 moved, is the false teaching imbibed by 

 mankind from the cradle to the grave. 

 " Take care ! that's a bee ; a bee can 

 sting," is one of the first practical lessons 

 taught the child when it first opens its 

 eyes upon the beautiful world. And faith- 

 fully does it retain the false lesson 

 through all after life. It is found in ju- 

 venile books and magazines, put there by 

 men who are as ignorant as the children 

 they teach. It is one of those anomalous 

 statements which is both true and false. 

 True because the bee ."can sting," and 

 false because the idea is conveyed that 

 the bee is ever on the alert to sting some- 

 body, which is false and slanderous to the 

 good and peaceable character of the 

 honey bee. It has done its work, never- 

 theless, for perhaps 9 out of every 10 per- 

 sons imagine that the honey bee is their 



was overseer of the poor. Every year 

 and every day scores of poor people 

 were supported at the public expense, 

 who could become self-sustaining and 

 honored members of the community 

 if the views suggested by Mr. Coffin- 

 berry were carried into effect, making 

 honey a staple product, and its price a 

 reliable quotation, which would be the 

 result of a continuous summer honey 

 bloom. 



Rev. L. Johnson said there were 

 thousands of good and willing men, 

 South as well as North, who had lost 

 a leg or an arm, or were otherwise in- 

 capacitated from earning a comforta- 

 ble livelihood at laborious employ- 

 ment, who would bail with joy the 

 opportunity to support themselves. If 

 bee-keeping was made a reliable oc- 

 cupation, with ;i certain production 

 and a staple price, as was demon- 

 strated by the author of yesterday's 

 paper (Mr. Cotlinberry.) These peo- 

 ple were now more or less dependent ; 

 in the North their government pro- 

 vided pensions for them ; in the South 

 their hopes fled with their temporary 

 government, and thev depended upon 

 the public charity. In the breadth of 

 the land were hundreds of thousands 

 of women, well adapted for bee-keep- 

 ing, who are now drudging out theii 

 lives, often deprived of the merest 

 necessities of life, who but want to be 

 educated in apiculture.'and a steady 

 market to support themselves and 

 contribute millions to the wealth and 

 commerce of the nation. 



Mrs. L. Harrison, Peoria, 111., said 

 that 18 years ago the doctors gave her 

 but three years to live. She has now 

 cheated them out of 15 years, and at- 

 tributes her good health to her occu- 

 pation as a bee-keeper. 



Prof. Cook illustrated the adapta- 

 bility of bee-keeping as a lady's occu- 

 pation by instancing several cases 

 where health had been restored 

 through its pursuit. 



On motion, the Convention ad- 

 journed till 1:30 p. m. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



The Treasurer, Mrs. Frances Dun- 

 ham, of Depere, Wis., rendered her 

 annual report, showing a balance in 

 the treasury of S33.60, after meeting 

 all expenses. Report was accepted. 



Balloting for place of next meeting 

 being in order, 



D. A. Jones, delegate from the On- 

 tario Bee-Keepers' Association, in- 

 vited and nominated the next session 

 to be held in Toronto, during the 

 meeting of the Toronto Fair Associa- 

 tion. 



Wm. Williamson, of Kentucky, 

 seconded the nomination of Mr. Jones. 



more than man, more than most of the ani- 

 mals, they sometimes eat some kinds of 

 food which, according to circumstances, 

 can sustain their life or cause their death. 

 You have two colonies of bees entirely 

 destitute of honey ; you give one of these 

 colonies for food a comb of good and well 

 ripened clover honey ; you give the other 

 colony some molasses. Both colonies will 

 seem to thrive equally well, if you make 

 the experiment in summer, when they can 

 enjoy a daily flight. But if you shut up 

 both hives for two days, when you release 

 them the bees of the one with clover honey 

 will go out to void their intestines without 

 you being able to see their feces. These 

 will besosmall, so light in color, that they 

 will fall unnoticed, as in the every day 

 purifying flight of a healthy colony. On 

 the contrary, the bees of the colony fed 

 with molasses will let large drops of dark 

 and foul matter soil all the neighboring 

 objects. 



If, in lieu of the two days' confinement 

 you prolong it for eight days, then, at the 

 opening of both entrances, the bees of the 

 colony with clover honey will act the same 

 as after their two days' confinement, while 

 the bees of the colony fed with molasses 

 will crawl out, discharging their feces 

 around the entrance ; some, if not the 

 greater part of them, will have their abdo- 

 mens so much distended that they will be 

 unable even to void their contents. These 

 poor bees will crawl everywhere around 

 their hive, and perish on the ground. 



I can give another illustration of the in- 

 fluence of honev on bees during a close 

 confinement : For years the importation 

 of Italian queens into this country was 

 attended with much loss ; sometimes half 

 of a shipment were alive. Such a result 

 was then considered as a lucky one, for 

 most of the time hardly one queen was re- 

 ceived alive, to show that the bees were 

 not all dead when put in the boxes. 



Of course, such a business was far from 

 being profitable, and more than one enter- 

 prising bee-keeper was deterred from con- 

 tinuing it, after a few trials. 



What was the cause of such ill success? 

 The main, if not at times, the only cause, 

 was the quality of the honey given to the 

 bees for food during the journey. 



In Italy bees gather largely from a di- 

 versity of plants. Persuaded that success 

 in that branch of business was possible, I 

 began, with in v shipper, a series of exper- 

 iments to ascertain which kind of honey 

 was the best for such a long confinement. 

 After several careful experiments during 

 two years, we succeeded so well in the se- 

 lection of honey that we have many 

 times received boxes containing queens 

 which had barely adead worker bee, after 

 a journey of 22 days. Then our importing 

 business became a success, and paid back 

 all the money lost in seven years of unsuc- 

 cessful importation, giving handsome pro- 

 fits besides. , . . , 



Both these illustrations show what hap- 

 pens during the winter to the bees, accord- 

 ing to the quality of the food that they 

 have to eat. 



Every bee-keeper has noticed that when, 

 after w'inter, w» find some of our colonies 

 dead, if they have not starved or smoth- 

 ered they have perished with diarrhea, 



