THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



225 



and supply them with bees by occasionally 

 putting thein on a removed strong colony's 

 stand. The intent is to keep the colony in 

 the abnormal condition of having field bees 

 almost entirely. In the hands of its inven- 

 tor ( I. W. Beckwith, A. B. J. ;»7 ) this plan 

 worked successfully. Hut I think most of 

 us would demur to having the honey gather- 

 ers of our best colonies drafted for special 

 comb building that way. It surprises me 

 that such a colony should build any great 

 amount of comb, either drone or worker. 



W. Z. Hutchinson's article in A. B. J. i525 

 treats of the subject of feeding back, of 

 which he is one of the acknowledged mas- 

 ters. Singularly one of the greatest diffi- 

 culties is to get them to cap the honey when 

 it is ready to cap. Stopping the feeding 

 for a few days, and putting unfinished 

 sections underneath are the remedial mea- 

 sures suggested. 



E. L. Dunham, A. B. J. 831, when robbers 

 were at a weak colony in great force, shut 

 them in, and kept them in six days, hoping 

 they would get naturalized. They did, and 

 didn't kill the queen either. Then the firm 

 opened up at the old stand with new part- 

 ners and enlarged facilities. Nothing suc- 

 ceeds like success : but I suppose the suc- 

 cess of this method every time is not war- 

 ranted. 



I think the foundation cutting arrange- 

 ment given and illustrated by F. L. Thomp- 

 son, A. B. J. 337, is one of the best that has 

 been brought out. Get the number for May 

 28 and see the picture if yon can. Other- 

 wise the device may be thus described. 

 First, a block the exact size of the uncut 

 sheets. The sheets to be cut at one time 

 are piled on the block, just as many as you 

 find by experience you can cut through at a 

 stroke. Second a tray of thin stuff sized 

 just to slip over sheets and block, and hold 

 the sheets firmly. Saw kerfs, nice and true 

 are in the bottom of the tray, and part way 

 up the sides. A keen knife lubricated with 

 honey, and drawn in one firm stroke, does 

 the business at each kerf. For aught I see 

 there must be two trays, one for each set 

 of cuts, unless your sheets are squares and 

 you want square pieces. 



To make a humiliating confession, cut- 

 ting foundation is my terror. I use but 

 little, and never have anything handy to cut 

 it with. My " method " is an old pair of 

 shears soaked in the coldest water I can get 

 hold of. Yes, many years ago I purchased a 



foundation cutter of a well known dealer. 

 Did it get lost or broken? No, never had 

 had the grace to do either one — or anything 

 else satisfactorily. At present it serves a 

 little boy for a plaything ; but it isn't a sat- 

 isfactory plaything, owing to its inborn 

 contrariness. 



Mrs. Livingston is fond of eggs, but never 

 eats a hen's nest ; therefore she educates 

 prospective customers, fond of honey, not 

 to eat bees' nest — broken comb in which 

 generations of young bees have been cra- 

 dled. 



RiOHABDS, Ohio. 



July 9, 1896. 



eXXRMOXEO. 



Preventing Swarming by Bearing no Drones. 



I fully believe that by some means we 

 will yet find some profitable method of pre- 

 venting swarming. The idea of preventing 

 it by not rearing any drones is not new, 

 neither is the preventing of their rearing by 

 close spacing new, notwithstanding all this, 

 the following article is not without interest 

 in bringmg up an important topic, and in 

 showing how closely we may space the combs 

 if we wish. It was written by W. K. Morrison 

 of Bermuda, and published in Gleanings. 



" This article is for the veterans only : 

 others will please look on. The average 

 bee-man looks on a non-swarming hive as a 

 madman's dream ; but the veteran, looking 

 back over the achievements of time, will 

 look with some degree of anxiety to see if 

 the long-looked-for has come at last. My 

 belief is that the thing is within our grasp 

 — almost here. Watt built his engine on 

 Black's 'Theory of Latent Heat; ' Colum- 

 bus discovered the New World on the theory 

 that the earth is round ; Maxwell's theory 

 of electricity is at the bottom of all the 

 electrical science of the present day : so it 

 becomes me to have a theory too. The theory 

 is simply this : ' No swarming without 

 drones. ' Now, this does not mean that 

 one or two drones may be permitted. Mr. 

 Doolitle says, ' Raise a feiv drones. ' My 

 dictum is, ' Raise none — not one. ' Now, 

 this is not so difficult as at first seems to 

 most of your readers. The present spacing 

 of frames or combs from center to center is 

 1 3-8 inches. This has been decided on 

 chietly because it is Nature's spacing. But 

 what do we wish to copy Nature for ? Our 

 entire system of bee culture is the most un- 

 natural thing out. People who wish to fol- 

 low Nature's way had better let their bees 

 go wild. The great sign of swarming is 

 seeing drones about the hive, either hatched 

 or in the cell state. 



