THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



209 



cur. I believe 1 learned this plan of Dr. C. 

 C. Miller. No, this practice has caused no 

 trouble by inciting robbing. The bees are 

 allowed to " grub away " at the combs until 

 they quit the business of tlieir own accord. — 

 Ed. J 



Preventing Increase by Returning the Swarm 



to the Parent Hive— Too Many Drones 



Cause Swarming. 



DADANT & SON. 



'M'^RIEND Hutchinson:— In reply to your 

 in(iuiry concerning our article in 

 Uleaninfjs page iA\, on the question 

 of preventing increase, by returning the 

 swarm to the parent colony 48 hours after 

 the swarm is hived, we will say that we are 

 not the originators of this method. It has 

 been recommended years ago by French 

 writers, Hamet, Collins and others. 



The great drawback of box-hive bee-keep- 

 ing lies in the fact that during good seasons 

 the bee-keeper gets too many swarms to get 

 much honey and during bad seasons he 

 loses them and finds himself as poor as be- 

 fore. For this reason Collins and Hamet, 

 who were the champions of Ijox-hive bee- 

 keeping, as you perhaps know, in spite of 

 all the last half century's improvements, 

 were compelled to study the best means of 

 preventing swarming and returning swarms 

 to the parent hive. 



Hamet had noticed what we found our- 

 selves after him, that if the swarm was re- 

 turned at once to the hive, the bees were 

 more than likely to swarm again as early as 

 possible. When the swarm is held in an 

 empty box for 24 to 48 hours, the old colony 

 gets over the swarming impulse, cools down, 

 and when the old queen is returned she is 

 allowed to destroy the queen cells much 

 more rapidly. This does not do away with 

 swarming, altogether, as much depends on 

 the season, and many other causes may in- 

 duce further prepartions for swarming 

 again, but it has a tendency to put an end to 

 the swarming fever, and is much more suc- 

 cessful than the returning of the swarm at 

 once even if the queen cells are taken out 

 before returning the swarm, as the excite- 

 ment of 8. \ arming is not over in the latter 

 case, and new cells are very soon reared. 



As a matter of course it is still more ad- 

 visable to remove the queen cells or the 

 young hatched queen, as the case may be, 

 before returning the swarm, or if preferable, 

 to kill the old queen when the swarm is be- 



ing returned, as she may be old and begin- 

 ning to fail. There are, however, other mat- 

 ters of great importance which are too often 

 disregarded by bee-keepers, especially be- 

 ginners, who wish to prevent swarming. One 

 of the most important points is the drone 

 question. 



They say that when Louis the Fourteenth 

 was contemplating war, his Prime Minister 

 Colbert said to him: "Sire, to make war we 

 need,firstly, money ; secondly, money ;thirdly, 

 money." Well, to raise honey successfully 

 and prevent swarming, we need, firstly, to 

 prevent drone rearing, secondly, to pre- 

 vent drone rearing; and thirdly, to prevent 

 drone rearing. This is not all we need, as 

 money is not all we need for war, Ijut it is 

 one of the great needs that are too often dis- 

 regarded. The drones are expensive to the 

 bee-keeper, more so than many believe, and 

 unprofitable and annoying to the bees. They 

 are in the way, being out of the hive 

 only a couple of hours each day, get in the 

 path of the bees at the busiest time and 

 keep the hive hot when it most needs to be 

 cooled. One frame full of drone comb will 

 furnish all the drones that are needed for a 

 full apiary of 100 colonies. The others 

 should be removed from the hives in early 

 spring and replaced by worker comb. True, 

 some people will tell you that if you remove 

 the drone comb, the bees will cut down 

 worker comb and put drone comb in its 

 place. Don't listen to them. One great 

 draw-back to progress lies in the fact that 

 many people go by hearsay and not by their 

 own experiments. Let our readers take out 

 all the drone comb that they see in all their 

 hives except in one or two of the best 

 colonies, (they will be sure to leave small 

 patches of it here and there, liut this is un- 

 important) and they will find it much 

 cheaper than rearing drones and using some 

 queen trap or other to catch them afterwards. 

 They will also find that their V>ees will swarm 

 much less, provided they also try to keep 

 the hives well shaded, with enough venti- 

 lation to prevent the bees from lying out in 

 the hottest weather, and room enough for 

 the bees to harvest as large a crop as may 

 be expected. 



We speak of ventilation. Did you ever 

 stop to think that when the bees of a hive 

 are lying out in clusters during a good flow 

 of honey, it is because they feel ill at ease 

 inside? This is one reason why we are in 

 favor of loose bottom boards. We want to 



