\ . ■• •■ •-.^- ..V • . ■. Vr- - ■^"<'^'0'>j-w r.-!(['^'>^>'V:i 



■u '■-:-:^i^ ■ * 



102 



TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Avhile and the first young queen comes 

 out; put that tack, and there will be a 

 battle and one or two queens will be 

 killed, and after you return your swarm 

 a few times there will be only one left. 



Mr. Taj'lor — That keeps you working 

 all summer! 



Dr. Miller — No, within 16 days, and 

 the thing will be ended. 



Mr. Whitney — I would like to ask Mr. 

 Taylor if the queen was an exception- 

 ally good one would you kill her? 

 "Would it not be better to cut out the 

 queen-cells and put the swarm back? 

 Mr. Taylor — That is more trouble, 

 and generally there are liable to. be 

 young queens out, anyway. There is. 

 one thing, perhaps, well for you 

 to remember; If you kill the old 

 queen and put the swarm back, and 

 the swarm goes out with the young 

 queen, when you go to take out the 

 cells you will find several young queens 

 have gone out. It is not necessary to 

 pay any attention to the young queens, 

 only to the cells; you put the swarm 

 back and those young queens that are 

 out will dispose of each other without 

 any more trouble. 



Mr. Howard — During the past sea- 

 son, 'with 40 colonies of bees stor- 

 ing an average of 80 lbs. per colony, 

 I have succeeded in what is to me 

 almost perfect swarm- control. How 

 it may work out next year, I don't 

 know- 



My super, in the first place, holds 

 52 sections 11-frame hives; 52 4x5 

 sections; I use fences. In the begin- 

 ning I put on 8 to 12 sections; put 

 them inside of two fences; put apiece 

 of quilt over them in the center of the 

 super; seemingly the bees took to it 

 readily. 



I got 80 lbs. per colony and with 

 perfect swarm-control; I had one 

 swarm go off before any supers were 

 put on, and I had one swarm come 

 off when I thought it was so late there 

 was no need of removing them. I 

 "wound up" my honey harvest with 

 less unfinished sections than I ever 

 had before. 



Dr. Miller — ^While I said I was 

 learning about that and didn't know* 

 the answer, I might give two or three 

 points as to how to prevent swarm- 

 ing. You all know that plenty of 

 room is an important matter, and so 

 "^s the matter of upward ventilation; 

 that will help to prevent swarming. 



As to the matter of giving plenty 

 of room, I believe it is a good plan 

 when you have the first super suffi- 

 ciently full so that you put the sec- 

 ond one under it, at the same time to 

 put an empty super at the top, and 

 always to keep the empty super on 

 top until, when the season begins 

 to close, you will find the empty super 

 on top. If it happens they are crowd- 

 ed for room that will act as a safety 

 valve. 



Another thing that helps; will come 

 on the same line: If you will get the 

 old queen away, and get the young 

 queen in her place — a queen that has 

 just begun laying — and get her to 

 work, that as a rule is safe from 

 swarming the same season. There 

 may be exceptions. Let the colony 

 become queenless; if you take away 

 their own queen and let them be 

 queenless for 10 days — cut out the 

 cells and return the queen, gener- 

 ally that will stop swarming for a 

 time; they may swarm again; they 

 may in some cases. 



As very closely related to that I 

 want to mention the subject of de- 

 stroying the queen cells. A beginner, 

 generally, when he finds out when the 

 cells are destroyed that stops the 

 rearing of queens, he knows that he 

 can k^ep cutting out cells and there 

 never will be any swarming — he will 

 find out that won't work at all. And 

 yet I have a good deal more faith in 

 . destroying cells than I used to have. 



I believe there is a difference in 

 strains of bees about swarming, and 

 if you prevent swarming in a strain 

 of bees a good many years, they will 

 not be so much given to swarming; 

 and if you have a strain that is not 

 very much given to swarming, if you 

 will destroy the cells, in perhaps half 

 the . cases the tendency for swarming 

 will not be repeated, so I think it is 

 worth while to destroy the cells often 

 if it does not stop swarming in' more 

 than half the cases because the other 

 half that it does stop will do a whole 

 lot better work than if they were al- 

 lowed to swarm. 



Mr. Taylor — !Do you ever put the 

 swarm back and find that not more 

 than half of them^ would swarm out 

 again? When a prime swarm comes 

 out, put the swarm back, queen and 

 all; and often not more than half of 

 them will swarm again. 



