THE BEEKEEPERS' UFA IE W. 



17 



Mr. R. L. Taylor when in conversation with 

 him at our late Michigan State meeting. Mr. 

 Taylor says that the first year that foul brood 

 appeared in his yard a swarm from a foul 

 broody stock was freed from the disease 

 simply by hiving it upon foundation and let- 

 ting it alone. This was the " pole star " that 

 guided him into the harbor of success. It 

 appears unreasonable to suppose that all of 

 the diseased bees would die off in the four or 

 five days that must elapse before the hatch- 

 ing the first larvae. There is no one in our 

 ranks that takes more pains to be accurate 

 than does our Canadian friend, S. Cornell, 

 and I shall be glad to have him explain 

 more fully in regard to these points. 



CONSIDER THE LOCALITY. 



There is no question that in a great many 

 cases the prevention of swarming is desira- 

 ble. In out-apiaries and in the home-apiary 

 when the owner must be away during the 

 middle of the day, there is no doubt of the 

 desirability of preventing swarming. Wheth- 

 er more honey will be secured by the pre- 

 vention of swarming has been discussed at 

 great length, but the dispudants have in 

 most instances overlooked a most important 

 factor, that of location, or, to be more ex- 

 act, the time and duration of the honey flow. 

 In those localities where the flow is early and 

 short, as is often the case at the North, there 

 is not time in which to bring the colonies up 

 to the swarming pitch, allow them to swarm, 

 and then wait for the old colony to build up 

 into working condition. To secure the best 

 results, every means possible must be used 

 to foster and build up the strength of tile 

 colonies, that they may be ready for the 

 early harvest ; and when it comes, best re- 

 sults are secured if the bees attend strictly 

 to the work of storing the surplus, and let 

 swarming alone. 



In those localities blessed with a contin- 

 uous flow, or where there is a late harvest, 

 better results are obtained by allowing at 

 least one swarm from each colouy, as there 

 is time for both the parent colony and the 

 swarm to get themselves into good condition 

 for the later yields, when there are two col- 

 onies instead of one to gather the nectar. If 

 the locality is overstocked, this brings in 

 another factor, and, in that case, swarming 

 might be undesirable. 



The decisions in regard to the size of hives, 

 or of the brood nest, also of contraction of 



the brood nest, should also be iafluenced by 

 the lo:ality. With a short, early harvest, it 

 is not good management to use a hive so 

 large that harvest is well past before the 

 hive, or, rather, the brood nest, is filled. In 

 such a locality, the small brood chamber 

 hive comes out ahead, because it is so quickly 

 filled with bees, brood and honey, and the 

 bees are then ready for the sections before 

 the harvest is past. 



Contracting the brood chamber of a newly 

 hived swarm is in the same line ; it secures 

 the work of the swarm in the sections before 

 the harvest is past. In those localities where 

 the flow of honey lasts for months, or there 

 is a heavy fall flow, there is time to flU a 

 large brood nest and then put some honey in 

 the supers afterwards. In other localities, 

 if a swarm were given a ten-frame L. hive 

 as a brood nest, it would do but little more 

 than fill the brood nest ere the harvest would 

 be over. 



The man who understands iiis own locality 

 and the hives, implements and management 

 best suited to it should not forget that there 

 are other localities to which his requirements 

 would not be adapted. 



WHAT AKE THE OBJECTS OF INTEREST NEAR 

 WHERE YOU LIVE ? 



Since the announcement that I should 

 travel some among bee-keepers next sum- 

 mer, quite a number have written and asked 

 me to give them a call : and some of the 

 friends have incidentally mentioned objects 

 of interest, natural scenery, industries, etc., 

 that may be seen near their homes. This 

 reminds me that I have not told all that I 

 expect to do while on these trips. Of course, 

 the primary object of the "outing " will be 

 to visit bee-keepersand thereby gather items 

 of value to my apiarian readers ; but such 

 trips must necessarily be somewhat expen- 

 sive ; probably I could not afford them were 

 it not that I ex[)ect to photograph and "write 

 up" for other magazines or journals some 

 of the interesting things that I may run 

 across while on my wanderings You will 

 now see why I am pleased to have the friends 

 mention any thing in this line that may be 

 found near their homes. Perhaps some of 

 you will say "there is nothing of interest 

 near my home." Perhaps there is, only you 

 have not thought of it. There is an old but 

 true saying that " one half the world does 



