ii6 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



(Gleanings, 90) for the prevention of in- 

 crease. His plan is to return the bees 

 and remove the queen of the prime swarm, 

 and then, having adjusted a trap, to let 

 the young queens "fight it out." Both 

 Mr. Root and Dr. Miller object to this 

 method, and with the best of reasons. 

 Whatever may be the strength of the de- 

 sire to Stvarni under other circumstances 

 under these of an overflowing colony and 

 young queens emerging it may well be 

 called insane. I have had them swarm 

 under these circumstances after the hon- 

 ey-flow had ceased entirely. Mr. Getaz 

 says "It will take but a few days to de- 

 termine which queen will remain." If 

 he admits that a week or ten days are "a 

 few da3-s," he may be measurably correct. 

 I am convinced that this length of time is 

 none to long; for, under the "insane de- 

 sire," the bees are careful of their queen 

 cells and will protect their queens against 

 each other. I remember once in partic- 

 ular of having a colony which I suppos- 

 ed had but one queen left, nevertheless, 

 it kept up frequent attempts to swarm for 

 several days; and, upon investigation, I 

 found it had had two queens all of the 

 time. Little work of any kind is done 

 while the bees remain in this state of un- 

 certainty and excitement; and the chances 

 are that the week or ten days will take the 

 heart out of the honey-season. The only 

 way I know of meeting the situation ad- 

 equately is to apply the advice herein be- 

 fore given to Mr. S. 



Editor Root vigorously combats Mr. 

 Getaz's plan, but it is difficult to deter- 

 mine from his language what specific 

 course he would advise. He says: "It 

 will not do to thwart the bees — that is, 

 once let them get the desire and then 

 forestall them. The thing to do w to keep 

 away the desire. Cont-ol of increase based 

 on any other plan is almost sure to be a 

 failure. 'To keep away the desire.' 



Right here Stenog stops long 



enough to observe: 'There is a great .ser- 

 mon in these words; for what evils have 

 not been hatched by a failure to kill the 

 brood by crushing out that desire. ' " I 



thought I understood what the editor 

 meant until he modified it by adopting 

 Stenog's idea, "to kill the brood by crush- 

 ing out the desire;" then his meaning be- 

 came altogether murky and involved. If 

 his idea is to adopt a method, with the no- 

 tion that thus the swarming instinct can be 

 prevented, my answer is that, as a gener- 

 al proposition, I long since came to the 

 conclusion that that is impracticable. 

 For a 3'earor two, under peculiar circum- 

 stances, one may think he has learned 

 how "to keep away the desire;" but he 

 is sure to find out, sooner or later, that, 

 under ordinary circumstances, his plan 

 is futile. If I have correctly divined 

 that to be his notion, then his opinion 

 seems to be that "the desire" is a sort of 

 disease that nmst run its course after it 

 once gets hold of a colony. I cannot fall 

 in with that. A bird desires to sit when 

 she has her nest supplied with her com- 

 plement of eggs. Destroy her nest and 

 eggs, and she no longer desires to sit; 

 but proceeds to build another nest. It is 

 a rough simile, but a queen with the im- 

 mediate prospect of more queens is the 

 nest of eggs that provokes the swarming 

 desire. Destroy the conditions by re- 

 moving the queen, and desire ceases at 

 once. It is likely to be revived again 

 when a queen emerges from one of the 

 cells. Now, eliminate all prospect of 

 another queen and you eliminate, effectu- 

 ally, all desire to swarm for that season. 

 By that course I feel certain the bees can 

 be thwarted successfully. 



Dr. Miller also relates that he found 

 the plan of letting the young queens fight 

 it out unsatisfactor)-; and that the young 

 queens "only too often," although not 

 small, got through the zinc. His zinc, 

 then, must have been improperly made, 

 or else it has become wrinkled. As I said, 

 my queens do not get through the zinc. 



RE.VRING BEES THAT BECOME USEI^ESS 

 CONSUMERS. 



In the article bj' Mr. Getaz, referred to 

 above, he devotes considerable space to 

 the subject of strong colonies in relation 



