406 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 27, 



swarming is about to- commence, the queens should be re- 

 moved and placed each with a comb or two and some bees in a 

 nucleus. All queen-cells should be destroyed then, and again 

 eight or nine days later. In a week or ten days more the 

 queens can be returned. 



With them, the process has the advantage that it not only 

 prevents swarming, but also increases the surplus crop, from 

 the fact that no brood is reared during about 15 or 20 days, 

 and all the honey that would have been consumed by that 

 brood is saved. Besides, the bees reared' at that time would 

 be only consumers as, by the time they would come out of the 

 cells, the honey-flow is over. 



With me, the case is altogether different.' To prevent 

 swarming I would have to remove the queens between the 1st 

 and 15th of May. Brood at that time, with me, produces 

 bees that will be ready to work when my surest surplus (the 

 sourwood) is to be gathered, and it seems to me that I cannot 

 afford to lose 15 or 20 days of brood-rearing under such con- 

 ditions. At any rate, the loss of brood ought to be reduced as 

 much as possible. 



Mr. Aikin (of Colorado), at a bee-keepers' convention, 

 gave the following : His honey-How begins about June 15, 

 and lasts from -10 to 60 days. He removes the queens just 

 before the honey-flow, cuts all the queen-cells but one, and in 8 

 or 10 days cuts again all the queen-cells that may have been 

 started since ; and allows the colony to requeen, unless he 

 chooses to give them another queen. This is about the same 

 as Mr. Elwood's process, except that the time without rearing 

 brood is not quite as long. I should think that allowing the 

 bees to rear a young queen wonld have the advantage of pre- 

 venting any possible swarming later in the saason. For those 

 who wish to have a full description of the El wood and Aikin 

 methods, I refer to the American Bee Journal for IStto, Dec. 

 14, page 751: and 757 ; and Oct. 26, page 528. 



Mr. Hutchinson, during the last few years, has removed all 

 the queens early in the spring, and replaced them by young 

 queens from the south. He has never told the public what 

 success he meets with, any farther than what is published in 

 his advertisement for selling his removed queens. 



I have never tried the Langdon swarmer. I saw at once, 

 when it was first given to the public, that it would have the 

 disadvantage of reducing brood-rearing considerably, and I 

 considered that too great an objection. At that time (ab6ut 

 two years ago) I conceived the idea of turning the bees iffto 

 the supers instead of turning them in another hive, and " in- 

 vented " a contrivance to attain the result. Briefly told, the 

 idea was to close the brood-nest except a bee-escape, and con- 

 duct the bees directly to the supers through a passage box. 

 The supposition was, that the few young bees left in the 

 brood-nest without anything brought from the field would de- 

 stroy the queen-cells and give up swarming; and that the old 

 bees, finding themselves out of their regular home, atid with- 

 out a queen, would also give up swarming and start to work 

 in the supers in earnest. It also occurred to me that a comb 

 of brood placed in the passage box would prevent the bees 

 from being too much discouraged, or from scattering into the 

 neighboring hives. Also that the escape from the brood-nest 

 ought to be constructed in such a way that the outside bees 

 could not realize that their old brood-nest is behind, or they 

 would cluster on it, and possibly smother those left inside. 

 For full description, seethe American Bee Journal of Dec. 14, 

 1893, page 757. Now for the results : 



Last May, between the 1st and cJrd, I closed the brood- 

 nest of 6 hives having large brood-nests (13 Langstroth 

 frames), and 19 hives having brood-nests of 8 frames a little 

 larger than the Langstroth frames (about 9 Langstroth 

 frames). The brood-nests remained closed from 3 to days — 

 rather too short a time for good results, but I was rather 

 timid about it. In the first place, bees did not work in the 

 sections as I hoped — they hung about the entrance, and in the 

 passage box. I thought perhaps the comb in the passage box 

 would be a splendid affair to rear fine queen-cells, but I was 

 disappointed. For some unaccountable reason the queen-cells 

 reared there were nothing but miserable little bits of things. 



The escape works well. It is necessary to have a comb in 

 the passage box. The brood-nest did not get depleted of bees 

 as fast as I thought it would ; but queen-cells, drones and 

 drone-brood were all destroyed. Some of the young bees that 

 were probably out for the first time, succeeded in going back 

 through the escape. None of the worker-brood already 

 started was lost, but no more, or very little more, was reared. 

 On the other hand, I found plenty of eggs, showing that the 

 queens must have kept on laying during at least two or three 

 days after closing. One thing I secured, was the sure de- 

 struction of all cells that may have been already started, and 

 by a much cheaper way than cutting them out myself. 



Of the 6 hives with large brood-nests, only one so far 

 (June 12) has swarmed, and as I found neither eggs nor young 

 brood, I suppose the queen died. Of the 19 hives with small 

 brood-nests, only three have swarmed, two of which were evi- 

 dently crowded for space, the brood-nest being nearly full of 

 brood. To be fair, I ought to compare with those not thus 

 treated, but I cannot give definite results. Several colonies 

 had already swarmed; those treated were the strongest 

 among those that had not yet swarmed, some were divided, 

 some queens were replaced, so I am not in shape to compare. 

 I can only state the facts as they are. 



One incident occurred last year in a trial of the "appara- 

 tus" that I must relate. I had placed it on a colony that was 

 ready to swarm. The next day they s^varmed from the brood- 

 nest through the escape, and clustered upon a tree. The 

 swarm was queenless, since the escape is arranged with a 

 piece of perforated zinc at the base of the cone. That queen- 

 less swarm remained three days on that tree, and I don't 

 know how much longer it would have been there if I had not 

 hived it. The only way I can explain it is, that those of the 

 bees that went back home found the things so changed (by 

 closing the brood-nest) that they did not recognize the place, 

 did not know where to go, and thus remained on the tree. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



What Dr. Miller Thinks. 



How TO Prevent Swakmisg. — That's always an enticing 

 title, but one gradually learns not to expect too much from it. 

 On page 374, Friend Welch gives the general practice of all 

 who work for comb honey, but this must be an exceptional 

 case if it does much to prevent swarming. Will he please give 

 us exact figures as to number of swarms from a certain num- 

 ber of colonies '? Also size of hives he uses ? 



Time of Day to Extract. — I never thought of it before, 

 but A. C. Sanford gives a good idea on page 374, to extract 

 in the morning when the least thin honey is in the hive. Per- 

 haps the Dadant plan is better, to leave all on until the close 

 of the season, and then there will be no thin honey. 



Pure Italians and Laying Workers — John McArthur 

 is somewhat revolutionary ou page 378. A pure Italian 

 queen is generally understood, if 1 am not mistaken, to be 

 one not only whose parentage is pure Italian, but whose fecun- 

 dation has been by a pure Italian drone. He calls her pure 

 without reference to her mating. Perhaps that might have 

 been the better way, but it may be a question whether it is 

 practical or desirable to chapge the meaning established by 

 usage. 



Again, if I understand him correctly, he wants to change 

 the definition of pure Italians so that they must not only have 

 three yellow bands, but must be yellow to the tip. That 

 would put things in such shape that none of the queens im- 

 ported from Italy are pure, as none of them produce workers 

 yellow to the tip ; and it would also make included among 

 pure Italians those yellow bees descended from Syrian or Car- 

 niolan stock. 



Mr. McArthur finds a use for that much-despised class of 

 bees — laying workers ; but I'm afraid he'll not find many to 

 agree as to their usefulness. 



Spring Desertion. — Oliver Doty will probably have in 

 future years more experience like that he mentions on page 

 385, and very likely he'll never get a satisfactory explanation. 

 Bees sometimes desert their hives in spring when nothing 

 wrong can be seen, unless it be that there are too few bees 

 present to take care of the brood. Strong colonies are not 

 likely to desert their hives. Marengo, 111. 



Trying Bee-Hives — Winter Losses of Bees. 



BY B. TAYLOR. 



In a recent letter from our jolly friend. Dr. C. C. Miller, 

 he says : 



" I have been so crowded that I have not previously ac- 

 knowledged the receipt of yours of the 9th, for which I thank 

 you. But what terrible thing have I ever done to you that 

 you would inflict on me the trial of all the hives in the world 1 

 For you talk of bantering all to send their hives to me for 

 trial. Bless your heart, I'm so crowded now that I have the 

 hardest kind of work to keep things straight, and if such a 



