\)e (Dee- 



eepeps' jAe\^ie6) 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to [[\e Interests of Hoqey Producers. 



$L00 A YEAR. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Proprielor. 



VOL, IX, 



FLINT, 



ICHIGAN, 



JULY 10. 1896 



NO. 7, 



AV^ork at jVticliigari's 



Experimental 



^piarv. 



E. L. TAYLOR, APtAKIST. 

 SWARMING. 



■f 



7 HE season of 

 1890, in point 

 of swarniint;, has 

 been a remarka- 

 ble one. The bees 

 lightly pet at 

 naught all the 

 accepted canons 

 of bee keepers 

 respecting that 

 function. Lack 

 of trreat strength 

 had little ret'train - 

 ing influence, and abundance of room, »ven 

 in the brood nest, none at all. Swarming 

 began the la^t of May, continuing just a 

 month, during a very moderate flow of nec- 

 tar, ending abruptly when that flow was at 

 its be^t at the height of ba'^swood bloom, 

 though even then the secretion of nectar was 

 very light. Not more than one or two 

 per cent of the colonies did anything at all 

 in the supers before casting swarms and 

 many did not wait to fill the combs in the 

 brood nest. Under such circumstances it is 

 safe to say that it would not be wise to 

 cease efforts to determine the best methods 

 of securing and managing swarms, on ac- 



count of any bright prospect of speedy 

 success in breeding out the swarming in- 

 stinct, or even of any satisfactory invention 

 that will practically allay it. Indeed it is a 

 very serious question wliether if this object 

 conld be secured in either of these ways it 

 would be satisfactory to more than a very 

 small percentage of apiarists. There are 

 always more or less losses from various 

 causes to be made good, and there is no 

 cheaper or more generally satisfactory way 

 of doing this than through the increase by 

 swarming. The loss of even a few colonies 

 each winter during a series of unfavorable 

 years, where there is little or no swarming, 

 with occasional failure of queens and lack 

 of stores, often best met by the uniting of 

 colonies, sometimes makes the aggregate 

 reduction in numbers rather startling. 

 Theu the serious item of the rearing of 

 qaeeus comes in, which must be done arti- 

 fically if increase is secured without swarm- 

 ming. No doubt as good queens can be 

 secured in this way at those obtained from 

 cells built and cared for under the swarming 

 impulse but how few, comparatively, are 

 the apiarists who have the aptitude, skill 

 and punctuality required to do it. Nineteen 

 out of twenty for one reason or another 

 would fail, and in these times of financial 

 stringency and uncertain honey crops they 

 cannot afford to purchase. Besides, it can 

 hardly yet be safely denied that bees re- 

 ceive an impetus to work by finding them- 

 selves in their newly pitched tent, destitute 

 of brood and provisions. 



