20 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



but little attention to the breeding of 

 my bees. They have done it better than 

 I could have done, and I very much 

 doubt if Mr. Green could have improved 

 on their methods. 



The fact of the case is, my bees have 

 a good location ; they take good care of 

 themselves without any tinkering or 

 fussing on my part ; they give me good, 

 paying crops every year, and 1 am one 

 of the old fogies— willing to "let well 

 enough alone." 



Wilmar, Minn. 



Revolving Hive-Stands a Failure 

 as a IVon.§ivarming Itletliod. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY B. TAYLOR. 



In the Bee Joubnal of June 1st, I 

 notice an article from the pen of R. P. 

 Holtermann, on methods used for pre- 

 vention of swarming, in which he says : 



Upon a post rested two pieces of timber, 

 the pieces crossing one another over the 

 post, the whole forming four arms which 

 could be revolved upon the post. At the 

 end of each arm, and upon the arm, was a 

 colony of bees, and from the first day the 

 bees could fly, the stand was given one- 

 quarter turn. In this way the flying bees, 

 every day they flew, went into a new home, 

 and the swarming impulse was kept down. 



Nine years ago I commenced experi- 

 ments to prevent swarming, or at least 

 to control increase. My first move was 

 to make some 50 hive-stands long 

 enough to hold 2 colonies each, and 

 upon these stands I placed one colony of 

 bees in the spring, where they remained 

 until swarming time. When they 

 swarmed, the parent colony was moved 

 to the vacant end of the stand, upon 

 which it stood, with its entrance turned 

 exactly opposite from its former posi- 

 tion. The new swarm was hived in a 

 new hive, on starters, and placed on the 

 stand where the hive of the parent col- 

 ony had previously stood. Thus the 

 two hives faced in opposite directions, 

 the new sw^arm getting all the field bees, 

 making it very strong for storing section 

 honey. 



I should explain here that this new 

 swarm was hived in one section of my 

 double hive, containing 10 frames 6x133^ 

 inches, and section supers added, to give 

 the requisite room, a queen-excluding 

 honey-board being placed between supers 

 and hive. 



In six days from the time of swarm- 

 ing all queen-cells were cut from the 



parent colony but one, and the old col- 

 ony allowed to rear a young queen, pro- 

 vided I had not given it a newly-hatched 

 queen at the time of swarming. 



The two hives were left until the end 

 of the white honey-flow, when all the 

 sections were taken from the new 

 swarm, the queen removed (unless an 

 extra good one), and the old colony, with 

 its young queen, placed on top of the 

 new swarm ; a queen-excluding honey- 

 board placed on top, and one or more 

 sections of my small hives on top of all, 

 to have their brood-combs filled with 

 dark honey, for extracting, or to be 

 kept for fall or spring feeding, as re- 

 quired. Let me here say that this is the 

 most profitable method of feeding that I 

 have ever tried. Just give each colony, 

 in the spring, from these reserved and 

 nicely-sealed combs, enough for all emer- 

 gencies; cover them warmly, and then 

 let them alone until time for putting on 

 the sections, and the colonies with their 

 young queens and ample stores will build 

 up better than any way I have ever 

 tried. 



I will not give the various steps by 

 which I advanced my experiments from 

 this starting point, until eight years 

 after, when they culminated in my re- 

 volving hive-stand of last year. I ex- 

 pected the revolving stand to prevent 

 swarming, and that was the only motive 

 for making it. My stand held 6 colo- 

 nies, and it was revolved one-sixth of 

 the way around each day, during the en- 

 tire season. The bees had a new hive 

 each day, and worked in complete har- 

 mony with a new queen each, day ; but 

 when a colony commenced queen-cells, 

 the next colony, and the next, and the 

 next, each in turn pushed the cells for- 

 ward to completion, instead of tearing 

 them down, as I had expected, and my 

 hopes of a non-swarmer by this method 

 was not only defeated, but I was en- 

 tirely astonished to find that these 6 

 colonies swarmed three times more than 

 equally good colonies in the house api- 

 ary, and 13^ times more than bees left 

 undisturbed in the open yard. Let no 

 bee-keeper waste one cent of money, or 

 minute of time, on the revolving stand 

 to prevent swarming ! 



But while I entirely failed to realize 

 ray expectations in preventing swarms, 

 the revolving stand led the way to what 

 I have full faith will, without machinery 

 of aTiy kind, entirely prevent swarming, 

 with not more than five minutes' work 

 to each colony per week, and with hives 

 loss costly than common, plain frame 

 hives. 



I expect to start an out-apiary of 50 



