1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1317 



"Did you not work your bees on the tier- 

 ing-up or spreading-out plan?" 



" Yes; but what has that to do with unfin- 

 ished sections?" 



" Far more in a poor season than in a good 

 season." 



"How is that?" 



"From what you just read, which Dr. Mil- 

 ler quoted from my writings on page 1075, 

 that bees will hustle with greater energy to 

 till a vacant space between partly tilled sec- 

 tions, or partly tilled sections and the hive 

 below, than they will if allowed to have their 

 own will." 



"Yes; but if I understand things aright, 

 we shall secure the more honey just in ac- 

 cord with this energy. Is not this right?" 



"Given the assurance, or the insurance (I 

 do not care which way you put it) of a good 

 season, long drawn out, then you would be 

 right; but with a season commencing well, 

 with no assurance about how long this com- 

 menced-good season would last, as in the 

 past season, then this tiering-up or spreading 

 system of woi'king, resulting in its increased 

 energy, does not give as good results as 

 where the bees are allowed to take their own 

 way of working." 



"How is that? I do not see my way clear 

 as yet." 



"With a good commencing we have one 

 super one-half to two-thirds full when you 

 come along and lift it up and put an empty 

 one under. With increased enei'gy the bees 

 rush into the under super so as lo connect 

 their work between the hive and the partly 

 tilled super above, working with much great- 

 er vigor than they did before, but at the 

 same time doing less work in the upper su- 

 per than they were doing before the tiering. 

 Two days later the good season is changed 

 to a poor one by rain or cold windy weather, 

 which continues till the honey-tiow is over, 

 in which case you have two supers well un- 

 der headway, but none of the sections tin- 

 ished." 



" Yes, I see that; but would I not have had 

 those untinished in the tirst super had I done 

 no tiering or spreading?" 



"Not with the same season, for half the 

 energy put into the super two-thirds full 

 would have tinished it, so you would have 

 had those sections in salable form, while now 

 you have double the number of sections work- 

 ed in, with few if any of them in salable 

 form." 



"Yes, but this was a peculiarly poor sea- 

 son." 



"I know it was; and it is because we seem 

 to have more of these peculiar seasons now 

 than we did thirty and forty years ago that 

 I gave up the spreading plan, and work on 

 the plan of adding at the top the sections 

 which have starters of foundation in them, 

 instead of tiering or adding between the top 

 and brood-combs below, as I used to do." 



"I see. But will not the average of the 

 seasons, even now, give the better results by 

 the spreading or energy plan?" 



"My experience says no, and that is why 

 I have adopted the other." 



Pointers from ttiE rear end St 

 the Bee ^- 



TOLDBYTHE^iO^ 



-r 



THAT SWARM PROBLEM. 



If an attempt at an article containing in- 

 formation is permissible in this department, 

 I wish to offer the following. If, howevei', 

 the reader fails to see any thing of merit in 

 it, please pass it off as a joke. 



Believing there are many localities similar 

 to mine, 1 wish to tell how I treat swarms 

 in a way that, so far as I am concerned, 

 solves the swarming problem. Our swarms 

 usually come about the middle of the white- 

 clover tiow, and, if hived on starters in a 

 contracted bi'ood-nest, as usually recom- 

 mended, the results are very unsatisfactory. 

 They will leave the corners untinished for a 

 time, and later will till them with drone 

 comb. If crowded enough to tinish off the 

 super they were working on they will usual- 

 ly carry pollen into the sections. If given 

 full sheets of foundation they will not tinish 

 the super, and will not, as a rule, get enough 

 honey to build up on and winter safely 

 Then this is too uncertain a method of in- 

 crease if increase is wanted. After trying 

 every thing I could hear of along this line 

 for a number of years, I hit upon the follow- 

 ing, which works out to my satisfaction: 



When a swarm comes out I place the clip- 

 ped queen in a small cage and hang it on a 

 pole or something that can be easily carried. 

 Then when the swarm has clustered on it I 

 allow it to hang there till night so the bees 

 will cool off. Then just as it is getting dark 

 I take the swarm to a colony that is not do- 

 ing good super work and dump them in 

 front of the entrance. The queen I give 

 back to the hive from which the swarm 

 emerged. This, however, is always requeen- 

 ed later, as a queen that swarms I never 

 keep. The old hive I move to a new locali- 

 ty, and the returning bees- will cluster with 

 the swarm, which should be allowed to clus- 

 ter near the old stand. The super from the 

 old hive should be placed on the hive con- 

 taining the swarm, and, as a rule, I have to 

 add an extra super to give them room. The 

 vigor with which the whole colony goes to 

 work, and the way they get the honey, is 

 certainly a pleasant sight. I have never 

 tested this by hiving a large swarm with an- 

 other large colony, but doubt if they would 

 make as much or any more honey than both 

 colonies would have made separately had 

 there been no swarm, but they make much 

 more than any other way that I have ever 

 tested when treating new swarms. 



But it is with the weaker ones that the 

 best results are obtained. Take, for instance, 

 two colonies not doing the best of work in 

 the supers — supers half full; the center rows 



