224 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



this condition do much more work than 

 those that take on the swarming impulse. 



This is the way we have treated our colo- 

 nies in two apiaries for the past six or eight 

 years and every year we have had less and 

 less swarms until last year we had less than 

 one in ten and this i ear not a swarm nor 

 any signs of swarming and our colonies hav- 

 ing wintered well are booming strong ; but 

 mind you every one has plenty of room for 

 the greatest possible efforts of both queen 

 and workers, with the exception of five or 

 six with which we are experimenting to see 

 how much pressure our bees will bear and 

 not swarm, since the swarming instinct has 

 been bred out of them, at least to a degree 

 giving the results above stated. Some of 

 you may be asking just what is our method 

 of working our bees with which we can 

 quickly and practically give the room needed 

 as mentioned above. As this article is al- 

 ready long enough, and this season advanced 

 beyond the use of the method for this year, 

 we will make it the subject of our leader in 

 our (October issue under the head of our New 

 Hive and how to use it. We do not wish to 

 be understood at this time that our non- 

 swarming method is confined to the New 

 Hive for it is not, but as you will see in our 

 forth-coming article, like most hive-manip- 

 ulation, the New Hive is much better adapt- 

 ed to it. 



We' most sincerely believe that we have 

 now reached that point that we can establish 

 any number of out apiaries without any ref- 

 erence whatever to the disastrous habit of 

 swarming. Later. — Since the above was 

 written, our swarming" season has passed 

 and while bees all about us have swarmed as 

 usual, we have had but one swarm from one 

 of the five or six colonies mentioned above." 



We often hear and read about a room in 

 some loft or chamber in which a swarm of 

 bees has been placed and where it has lived 

 and prospered for years without swarming. 

 When the owner wanted honey he simply 

 cut off some of the outer combs. Would it 

 be possible and profitable to so arrange mat- 

 ters that the honey that is put into these 

 outer combs would be stored in marketable 

 combs — in sections ? We could give up many 

 advantages in exchange for this one of no 

 swarming. I think we could afford to give 

 one-half the yield per colony that we now 

 secure, in exchange for the privilege of leav- 

 ing the bees unwatched the year round. 



A Condensed View of Current 

 Bee Writings. 



E. E. HASTY. 



¥EARS ago I used to furnish water for my 

 bees, and spent much thought on the 

 best methods of doing it. When I found 

 that by far the larger half of them would 



persistently goto the natural drinking places 

 they had chosen themselves I struggled for 

 awhile to win them back to the fountain 

 which I had provided. After a bit the sus- 

 picion that perhaps they knew their own 

 wants best, and that perchance I was 

 essaying the impossible, dawned upon me, 

 and I quit. When there are, within a quar- 

 ter of a mile, spots where cattle go to drink 

 at a brook, and tincture things with their 

 excreta, or even if without the cattle there are 

 convenient spots where water slowly oozes 

 over the ground, most likely furnishing 

 water to bees is a waste of time and thought. 

 Many apiaries however are not so circum- 

 stanced, but are remote from water, least- 

 wise remote from desirable water, and the 

 bees consequently are ready to meet their 

 keeper half way in the water business. How 

 then is the best way to water our multitudin- 

 ous stock ? It looks to me as if Dr. Miller's 

 last straw in Gleanings, r>72, might break the 

 camel's back of this problem, and prove a 

 finality. A crock of slightly salted water, a 

 big piece of coarse cloth thrown over it ; 

 then a big chunk of just the right kind of 

 rotten wood, somewhat longer thon the crock 

 is deep. Crowd the wood (and cloth in front 

 of it of course) down into the crock ; and 

 let the bees stand on the wood and take the 

 water as it soaks up. The cloth is to minim- 

 ize the chance of drowning I suppose. It 

 will readily be seen that there is no waste of 

 water, and no possibility of the flow stop- 

 ping. Also the bees' notion for water in the 

 act of percolating through something is sat- 

 isfied. Also the way is open for salting or 

 medicating the water to any desired extent. 

 Mrs. Atchley furnishes, not a finality, but 

 what approximates to a bran new idea— and 

 it is seldom safe to prophesy how much may 

 grow out of a new idea. A wagon load of 

 bees, without any hives or combs — all turned 

 in higglety pigglety into a covered wagon of 

 wire cloth, did not kill a single queen in a GO 

 mile journey ! Let us take in the fact first. 

 Then it will be in order to find out whether 

 the result is an exceptional one, or one to be 

 depended on. Then if we can proceed 

 further to find out the whys and wherefores, 

 perhaps a lot of things in our practice may 

 be modified with profit. I guess the reasons 

 are : first, a loss of the esprit de corps by 

 finding nearly every bee approached a 

 stranger ; next, a consciousness of being 

 prisoners, and a feeling of homelessness, and 

 of having nothing in the world to fight for 



