Feb. 16, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



103 



dentally, much information elicited which will be valuable 

 to the man with two apiaries or one apiary. The question 

 is this : Can one man without any assistance do all the 

 work inside of seven months of properly running 300 colo- 

 nies in three apiaries for comb honey ? 



The answer to that question must not be based on any 

 particular form of hive. We cannot afford, at present 

 prices of honey, to buy new hives for the bees we have, or 

 for the colonies we pick up here and there around the coun- 

 try, unless these are in very undesirable hives. 



I have tried dequeening, but am not satisfied. It in- 

 volves finding a great many queens, and cutting a great 

 many cells, when time is very valuable. Besides, I want 

 brood at that time, to rear workers for the second crop. 



I tried a plan once for natural swarming on 15 colonies, 

 and liked it very much, which I think, could be readily ap- 

 plied to artificial swarming. Extra hives are necessary. 

 The swarm is hived in the new hive on the old stand, and a 

 day or two later the old colony set on top of the new hive 

 and super, with a board between containing a little per- 

 forated zinc to allow the bees to pass up and down, and a 

 bee-escape communicating with the outside to allow the 

 drones and young queens to get out ; and this upper story 

 is kept there until all the brood hatches. That settles the 

 question ; there are no queens to find, no cells to cut, no 

 after-swarms to hive, and the whole strength of the colony 

 is kept together. I think it might be simplified by having 

 no zinc or bee-escape in the board, but simply an outside 

 cTiannel, large enough for ventilation, connecting the upper 

 hive with the entrance of the lower one. I have not tried 

 the latter arrangement just for that purpose, but I have 

 tried it on a large scale for a bee-escape, using a small 

 channel, and it workt well. • 



But the details of the plan are unimportant. That the 

 principle is a success is shown by the experience of F. and 

 H. Rauchfuss with a device by which the hives sit side by 

 side instead of one above the other. The objection to this 

 class of plans is that extra furniture is necessary. But 

 from such experience as I have had with both, I like the 

 idea better than dequeening. 



In order to get rid of the extra devices, Mr. H. Ranch 

 fuss now prefers a plan which he described in the conven- 

 tion last j'ear, wViich came at such a time in the proceedings 

 that it was not appreciated as it should have been. I will 

 therefore briefly describe it as a representative of another 

 class of plans, those which involve requeening : 



Shortly before the honey-flow the queen and two frames 

 of brood are put in an upper story with an excluder be- 

 tween, and the upper storj- filled out with empty combs. 

 The vacancy below is filled with frames of brood and bees, 

 taken from some colonies reserved for the purpose. Nine 

 days after, the upper story is removed to a new stand, all 

 queen-cells cut from the lower storj", a virgin queen is given 

 to the latter, and a super put on. 



There are certainlj' no objections to the results of this 

 plan ; it is bound to be successful, and has been proven to 

 be. But it involves finding of queens, cutting of cells, and 

 queen-rearing. To be sure, the cell-cutting, in this case, is 

 not a serious matter, for not so many bees are in the way 

 as by the ordinary plan, and all cells are cut instead of all 

 but one, so that the bees can be shaken from every frame. 

 But 300 queens are to find, and 300 queens to rear. These 

 are trifles for Mr. Rauchfuss, but I suspect many would be 

 glad of a modification which would enable them to work in 

 a little different way. 



Finally, there is a class of plans which consists essen- 

 tially of removing or shifting sealed brood. Mr. Hutchin- 

 son has told us in the Review how a bee-keeper of Michi- 

 gan, Charley Koeppen, manages five apiaries of SO to 75 

 colonies each on this plan, with the help of one man for 

 about three weeks during the swarming season. This is 

 not exactly what we want, for we want to know how to do 

 it with no help. Few can afford to hire. But it may be 

 suggestive. He puts empty combs in the center of the 

 brood-nest just before the flow. A week or ten days later 

 the combs of sealed brood in the center are shifted to the 

 outside, and the outside combs, which are largely filled with 

 honey, are moved to the center. Then at the beginning of 

 the basswood flow he overhauls them again. I suppose if 

 we were imitating his plan we would make it a week after 

 the last round. This time he takes away two combs of bees 

 and brood from all strong- colonies, filling the vacancy with 

 empty combs, and makes nuclei with the brood removed, 

 giving each nucleus a queen-cell, of which there are plenty 

 to be found in overhauling the colonies. All queens are 

 dipt. With this management, Mr. Hutchinson says there 

 is practically no swarming. Upon reaching an apiary, if 



there is not time to go over the whole number of colonies, 

 the strongest are selected. 



Mr. Brock, of our Association, has followed a plan 

 something like this for 20 years, and always secured good 

 crops. However, he runs only two apiaries, and we want to 

 run three. 



Circumstances will probably compel me to adopt a com- 

 bination of plans. The trouble with most of the.se schemes 

 is that thej' require extra hives. As honej'-prices now are, 

 we cannot afford much even partially idle capital, in the 

 shape of hives, not about every one occupied by bees all the 

 year round. I cannot answer the question certainly in my 

 own mind, whether an average man can run 300 colonies 

 for comb honey without assistance, and do all the work in- 

 side of seven months. A few smart men do. Ouite a num- 

 ber attend to two apiaries with ease. But I think there is 

 a possibilit)', that by attentivelj- considering and weigh- 

 ing all methods heretofore given, the average man may 

 evolve one suited to his particular case, which shall be suc- 

 cessful. 



In order to help him out, I ask every one here who has 

 had experience with out-apiaries to give the method which 

 with him has proven most successful and consumed the 

 least time ; and not only that but to think and experiment 

 about this matter during next season's work. It is one of 

 the most important problems which confront modern bee- 

 keeping. F. L. Thompson. 



Mr. Pease — Why that number in three apiaries ? 



Mr. Thompson — I put it that way merely to avoid 

 bringing in the question of overstocking. 



Mr. Foster — How many have made a success of non- 

 swarming, that is, so that the swarms do not come out and 

 alight on the trees ? 



Pres. Aikin — I have been managing three, four and five 

 apiaries with a minimum of swarming. 



Mrs. Rhodes — We had 60 colonies in chaff hives. We 

 opened them early, and gave them plenty of room. The 

 first season we had no swarms ; the second season, three or 

 four. We gave 24 frames altogether, and ventilated by 

 raising the cover. , 



Mr. Foster — I have succeeded as far as I have gone, by 

 watching, and when likely to swarm soon I either divided a 

 colony or gave a large amount of room. 



Mr. Adams — I have no particular method. It depeuds 

 upon a great many things — room, ventilation, weather — 

 getting bees to work in the sections is the main thing. 

 Occasionally one can't control the swarming impulse. 



A Member — When bees get warm, will it bring on the 

 swarming-fever, without a crop of honey at the same time ? 



Mr. Adams — The bees get warm beeause they are 

 crowded. 



F. Rauchfuss — How do you give room ? 



Mr. Adams — Just bj' giving room — just adding more. 



F. Rauchfuss — You must have a different strain of bees. 



Mr. Adams — Yes, I have a non-swarming strain. I had 

 4 to 8 percent of swarms in the last seven or eight years. 



Mr. Carlzen — I had 2 to 2 '2 brood-chambers to the col- 

 ony. I took away all the sealed brood possible, and put on 

 supers when the honey-flow came. 



F. Rauchfuss — We have practiced dequeening, but did 

 not like it. But we gave young queens or hatching queen- 

 cells just before the inclination to swarm. It is hard to rear 

 young queens at that time of year. 



Mr. Pease— Did you destroy the old queens ? 



F. Rauchfuss— We kept the old queens as a reserve 

 stock, in nuclei of one frame of hatching brood each. 



Mr. Gill — I have not prevented svrarming. I have 234 

 colonies in the home apiary, and two apiaries outside. One 

 bee-keeper can attend to the work, but he has to have a 

 wife. I make the strong ones swarm early, and have been 

 successful, using the 8-frame hive. From every colony that 

 shows an inclination to swarm I remove a frame, and let 

 them build a little comb, and get them started in the super, 

 and keep the bees engaged. Worthless queens are killed 

 and others given. Starters are used indiscriminately. 

 Supers are removed from one hive to another, with bees in 

 them, so as to give the other bees an object-lesson, and 

 show them they can keep at work, and empty supers placed 

 on the hives they were removed from. I soon have all the 

 bees at work in supers. Last season I had 30 swarms in 

 the home yard. I have little faith in dequeening for comb 

 honey, tho it is all right for extracted. 



Philip Large— I do not try to prevent swarming, but 

 have no more swarms than I need. I had 16 or 17 swarms 

 from 195 colonies, mostly in 10-frame hives. 

 [Concluded next week,! 



