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SO that when I got through with them 

 I should have little left in each hive 

 save the combs. This brood was given 

 to the stronger nuclei, which together 

 with brood taken from the colonies 

 which did not swarm, was used to 

 build up colonies for winter, so that I 

 now have 60 colonies again for winter. 



All of the colonies worked for honey 

 have an abundance for winter, after 

 an equalization of the whole, but the 

 united brood and colonies which were 

 built up in that way had to be fed in 

 order that they might winter without 

 danger from starvation. As my aver- 

 age yield of honey during the past l-i 

 j-ears has been not far from 80 pounds 

 per colony, it will be seen that this 

 year has been about an average season 

 "for honey in this part of New York 

 State. 



Borodino, N. Y., Oct. 1, 1888. 



EXPERIMENTS 



In the Prevention of Natural 

 Swarming, etc. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY W. M. WOODWARD. 



I was deeply interested in the ex- 

 periments of Mr. C. H. Dibbern, on 

 page 612, on the 



Prevention of Swarming. 



I had been going over the same 

 ground, and will give the experiments 

 and results : 



I had a strain of Albino bees and 

 hybrids, which would swarm every six 

 weeks, both old and young queens, 

 and I was, after three seasons, becom-. 

 ing anxious for some way to control 

 them. I caught at the Simmins' " non- 

 swarming" idea as a possible waj' out 

 of the trouble. It seemed to me feasi- 

 ble, and the only way that I conceived 

 worthy of further trial, for they would 

 build cells as long as they had anything 

 to build with, and 1 had tried every 

 way in former yeai's without success. 

 I therefore set myself about testing 

 what this heralded plan would do. 



I prepared 10 . colonies as follows : 

 Two colonies on nine 7-inch frames 

 were given an extra set of combs be- 

 neath, about ten days before swarm- 

 ing began. Two more were fitted up 

 the same with starters onl}'. Also six 

 extra Langstrotli hives (with 9 frames) 

 were fitted up with clean combs, and 

 two placed IJeneath and four above, 

 one each way on strong colonies of 

 black bees, and two each waj' on 

 hybrids. 



This I thought would give the plan 

 a fair test. The results were as fol- 

 lows : My first swarm was from a 7- 

 inch frame hive, single tier ; the sec- 



ond from one with an extra set of 

 starters below. The other one with 

 starters remained sometime longer, but 

 swarmed without building any comb 

 to speak of. 



The 2 colonies fitted with an extra 

 set of 7-inch combs below performed 

 as follows : One swarmed earlj-, I 

 think the third or fourth swarm, with- 

 out apparently occupying the extra 

 hive at all. The other swarmed and 

 went back ; and, as the queen had 

 used but the upper or original hive for 

 brood, I now changed them, putting 

 the brood below, and they remained. 



The two Langstroth hives given to 

 the black bees, one above and the 

 other below, both proved efl'ectual. 

 But — only one black colony out of 14 

 or 15 swarmed until very late, long 

 after these experiments had closed. 

 The 4 hybrid colonies fitted with Lang- 

 stroth hives, one above and the others 

 below, all swarmed ; but one, after 

 going back the third time, remained ; 

 and one other was changed from be- 

 low and put above, at the beginning 

 of the honey-flow from corn, about 

 July 20, and swarmed when the extra 

 hive was nearly filled for extracting. 

 I have no doubt this last would have 

 proved successful had I not removed a 

 case of sections from between the two 

 hives when they needed it ; but al- 

 though they had made a start in theirs, 

 the rest had done nothing, and I 

 thought they would only black their 

 combs, and so I took it off. They 

 swarmed in three or four days after- 

 ward. 



One conclusion which I arrived at 

 was this : That bees could not be in- 

 duced to build comb below, to any ex- 

 tent, after they had ceased to build 

 once in their hive. I tried the same 

 experiment later on with swarms, by 

 putting an extra hive with foundation 

 or startex's beneath, and in no instance 

 did 1 succeed in getting another set of 

 combs built, or even drawn out. I 

 found it necessary to change them to 

 the top, when they were built and filled 

 with honey. 



Another conclusion at which I ar- 

 rived was, that the extra hive is always 

 better above than below the brood. It 

 seems to prevent swarming better, 

 and also prevents the combs from being 

 loaded with bee-bread. 



Still another conclusion was, that 

 about 9 Langstroth frames gives the 

 most prolific queens that I have all the 

 room for brood that they want. Only 

 one of all these queens occupied the 

 second story, and when she swarmed, 

 I overhauled the hive and placed the 

 fullest frames of brood in one hive, 

 and two were given to a weak colony. 

 Yet I judged that the brood could as 

 well all have been placed in nine full 

 frames. 



In a word, the Simmins' non-swarm- 

 ing method has proven a great hoax. 

 Still I think that I have a " leader " in 

 the right direction. I was able, by the 

 use of an extra tier of drawn combs, to 

 hold off swarming. I believe that 

 swarming can be prevented. If so, it 

 will be by working colonies just as for 

 extracted honey, until well started ; 

 and working, bj' the tiering-up plan, 

 into comb honey at the time of raising 

 the upper story. 



The only way I was able to pi-event 

 increase was, by breaking up every 

 colony that swarmed, giving all of the 

 bees to the swarm, and using the brood , 

 where it could be disposed of to the » 

 best advantage. By this means I suc- 

 ceeded in keeping the bees together 

 strong enough to gather the fall crop 

 of honey. 



Valne of Comb Foundation. 



I have heretofore written very 

 strongly in favor of full sheets of comb 

 foundation in the brood-nest. I still 

 use it as a general rule ; but with the 

 above bees it has only aggravated this 

 disposition to swarm, as they positively 

 will not do anything outside the brood- 

 nest if they can crowd in there. 



I have found that I could keep them 

 together about tvro weeks longer by 

 using narrow starters only. I never 

 was able to get any comb honey from 

 them, except by sheer compulsion. I 

 have hived them for 24 hours, or even 

 more, in the cases only, and then 

 raised them upon a hive ; yet they 

 quickly found the place for their 

 home, and this did no good. A few 

 sections perhaps were started, but the 

 rest of their honey went below. They 

 must have positive contraction to the 

 space actually full of brood. 



CroiTdlng Frames Together. 



I have tried Mr. Pond's plan of 

 crowding frames together, somewhat 

 extensively for the purpose of prevent- 

 ing the hive from becoming choked 

 up with honey. The only advantage 

 I ever gained by it was, that the 

 breeding depth was retained, but it 

 was filled with honey just the same. 

 Taken alone, it was a total failure ; 

 but in conjunction with reversible 

 frames of a shallow type, it was a suc- 

 cess. The frames should not be deeper 

 than 7 or 7} inches — surely not more 

 than 8 inches for this purpose. 



The same result can be gained with 

 the hanging frame, when placed close 

 by taking the side of a knife and 

 bruising the cappings thoroughly. This 

 will cause the bees to remove the 

 honey in order to repair the combs, 

 when the queen will occupy the combs 

 witli brood. I have met with my most 

 perfect success in producing comb 

 honey by the latter process — a gain of 



