730 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mv. 14. 



prices you can get the different items for, by consulting price- 

 lists. Tiie 10 colonies of bees you probat)ly ought to get close 

 by home, for you can easily send far enough for them so that 

 the transportation shall be more than the cost of the stock. 

 On the whole, I thinii I'll make out a list with prices, and 

 although the prices may be somewhat out of the way you can 

 correct by comparing with price-lists: 



1 Text-Book on Bee-Keeping $1 25 



1 Bee-Veil 50 



1 Smoker 1 GO 



10 Colonies of Bees in good movable-frame hives 60 00 



30 Supers, in flat, with separators 3 50 



3,000 Sections 8 00 



30 Pounds Surplus Foundation 15 00 



Total $89 25 



I might safely say that by the time you've paid freight 

 you may not have a great deal left out of a hundred-dollar 

 bill. But as I said before, some of these prices may vary a 

 good deal. You can get a good smoker for half the money 

 I've mentioned, but at the end of a year it won't be very good, 

 so it's better to pay more at the start. 



I know it isn't very satisfactory to have an answer given, 

 and then to be told you can put very little reliance on it, but 

 unsatisfactory as the answer is, I've put a good deal more 

 than the usual amount 4f thinking on it. If you'll send me 

 something easier, I'll try real hard to select some better an- 

 swers. 



Hemp as a Honey-Plant. 



I send you a sample of plant and its seed, that comes up 

 of itself every year. It seems to be a great bee-plant, as the 

 bees work on it early and late, and the hens are crazy for the 

 seed. Will you kindly say what it is ? and if it would pay to 

 sow it in waste places ? About what is the seed worth ? The 

 plant has a very disagreeable odor, especially in damp weather. 

 It grows seven and eight feet tall, with wide spreading 

 branches like a tree, and yields lots of seed. 



Severance, N. Y. Mrs. J. M. 



Answer. — I'm not good at recognizing plants, but it hap- 

 pens that you send one with which I am familiar — hemp. You 

 will find seed such as you enclose sold at the stores for canary 

 birds. It might be well to scatter seed in waste-places and let 

 it get a start. I don't know the value of the seed, but know- 

 ing the name you can inquire of any dealer in seeds and 

 grains. 



Let me call your attention to an interesting feature of 

 the hemp plant. If you will look, at this time of the year, 

 you will find plants still green bearing seed, and you will find 

 others that are entirely dead. These dead plants have no 

 seed on them, never had, and never can have. In the early 

 part of the season they are flourishing enough. They are the 

 staminate or male plants, and after they have furnished pol- 

 len for the pistillate plants, being of no further use, they die. 

 The pistillate plants continue vigorous, and go on maturing 

 the seed. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. J. P. II. RUOWK, AUGUSTA, CA. 



[Please send all questions relating to bee-keeping in the South direct 

 to Dr. Brown, and he will answer in this department.— Ed. 1 



The International Bee-Keepers' Congress. 



This Congress will be held Dec. 4 and 5, during the Ex- 

 position now in progress at Atlanta, Ga., and it promises to 

 be a large and representative body of bee-keepers from all 

 parts of the United States. Excursion rates to the Interna- 

 tional Exposition at Atlanta are very low. Hotel and board- 

 ing-house rates have not been raised, but we are trying to get 

 reduced hotel rates to bee-keepers and their families. Excur- 

 sion tickets are on sale at Chicago, New York, and other 

 Western and Northern cities. 



The convention will be a business one — essays from some 

 of the most successful honey-producers will be read, and 

 questions involving the future prosperity of the bee-keeping 

 industry will be considered. 



Further information will be given those bee-keepers who 



intend going to the convention, if they will write Dr. J. P. H. 

 Brown, Augusta, Ga. 



Tlie Swarming Season and Tbeory. 



There is such a thing as a swarming season. Bees do not 

 swarm indiscriminately through the whole summer, even if 

 the honey-flow is favorable. Where the honey-flow is short, 

 the swarming season corresponds with it, and both take place 

 together, hence the idea that the honey-flow is the cause of 

 the swarming. That idea is incontestably true, but other 

 causes play a part in the program. 



In California, where the honey season lasts several 

 months, the swarming occurs during the early part of it, and 

 is over before the honey-flow has even begun. All the Califor- 

 nian writers are unanimous on that point. 



Mr. Aikin, in his writings on removing queens to prevent 

 swarming, said that in his former location the main honey- 

 flow takes place in the fall of the year, and that he was not 

 bothered by swarming. But when he moved in a location 

 where the main honey-flow occurs in the early part of the 

 season, the swarming question became a serious one, and he 

 eventually came to the practice of removing queens to prevent 

 swarming. In my locality, and with suflScient room in the 

 hives, little, or very little, swarming takes place after June 1, 

 however abundant the honey-flow may be. 



Then, there is a swarming season during the early part 

 of the summer, or rather during the spring. Why is it so, 

 and what causes it? 



Well, I suppose that Mr. Doolittle and Mrs. Harrison will 

 say that it is a law of Nature, so that the swarms may have 

 time to build up before winter. I guess they are right, but we 

 must remember that Nature or the Creator, God himself, 

 works through means, and that behind every efifect we find a 

 cause that produces it. 



During the winter the bees are huddled close together in 

 a compact cluster, the interior of which is at a normal tem- 

 perature, while the space outside of it may be even below 

 freezing. As the season advances, and the weather gets 

 warmer, the cluster expands itself, brood-rearing begins, 

 honey is brought in, but all the work done is only inside of the 

 cluster, as the temperature is too low outside of it to admit of 

 anything to be done. As the weather gets warmer the clus- 

 ter becomes larger, and finally, when the summer is decidedly 

 come (about June 1, in this locality), breaks up altogether, 

 and the bees will be found at work through the whole hive. 



In the above, I think we have the key of the situation. 

 Just as long as the bees are confined to the cluster, they are 

 cramped, and cramped badly, for space, and that lack of 

 space causes them to swarm. That cluster, so far as they are 

 concerned, and for all practical purposes, constitutes the real 

 colony, no matter how large the hive proper may be. In fact, 

 the larger the hive, the worse it is for being more difficult to 

 keep warm, it necessarily compels the bees to cluster closer. 

 Hence, the necessity of not giving too much space in the spring, 

 and not putting on the surplus-cases too soon ; hence, also, 

 the fact that a large hive may not always prevent swarming 

 during the early part of the season. A few years ago, one of 

 our prominent apiculturists put a colony of bees, early in the 

 spring, into a dry-goods box, and, seeing them swarm, hastily 

 concluded that a large hive has nothing to do with swarming. 

 Little or no swarming takes place even in the spring when 

 producing extracted honey. In that case empty combs are 

 given to the bees, and all they have to do is to put the honey 

 in. This can be done at a comparatively low temperature, 

 and in a comparatively short time — perhaps a few hours in 

 the warmest part of the day would be sufficient; while, when 

 working for comb honey, it might not be possible for the bees 

 to build the necessary comb, or even draw the foundation, 

 for lack of sufficient warmth in the surplus apartments. 



Now, don't misunderstand me. The point I want to make 

 is, that a large hive will not always prevent swarming in the 

 early part of the season, because, on account of lack of 

 warmth, the bees occupy only the space of the cluster, or 

 rather the combs that they can well cover, and therefore have 

 not space enough, and this lack of space causes them to 

 swarm. 



Later on, the situation is altogether dilTerent. With real 

 warm weather, the bees can work through the whole hive, 

 and therefore have plenty of space if the hive is large enough. 

 But if the hive is too small, they will swarm, no matter what 

 time of the year it may be, provided, of course, that the honey- 

 flow and other necessary conditions are favorable. 



Of course, all this refers to bees under normal or ordinary 

 circumstances. Exceptional cases must be explained by the 

 exceptional circumstances that cause them. 



