90 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT 



times if I shake them on comb I take the queen with them, 

 and I never had them leave. 



Mr. Hutchinson — I never have had any experience myself 

 with shook swarming, but quite a number of those who have 

 written articles on that subject have made one point quite 

 clear, that the bees should be pounded and disturbed and 

 jarred until they fill themselves thoroughly with honey. The 

 natural swarm fills itself when it starts out, and when that 

 point has been attended to there has been very little trouble 

 with absconding. Whereas, if we simply take them off the 

 combs without any of this previous disturbance there will 

 quite frequently be absconding. 



Mr. Abbott — I want to ask if the people who practise 

 shaking swarms give them the queen at once? The question 

 is asked if they start cells on the comb? Do they not have 

 a queen given them at once? 



Mr. Hutchinson — They have the old queen. 



Mr. Abbott — Suppose you make two or three swarms out 

 of a colony? 



Dr. Miller— We don't. 



Mr. Abbott — I thought if they would give them a queen, 

 and they had brood, I couldn't see why they would start 

 cells. 



Dr. Miller — As a matter of fact they do start cells. There 

 are two things you are getting a little mixed, the absconding 

 and the starting of queen-cells. The point is, Do they start 

 cells? They have started cells for me in more than one case, 

 and perhaps you who say they do not abscond, if you had 

 examined carefully you might find that they had started cells. 

 What they start cells for I don't know. Mr. Stachelhausen 

 says they start cells and he gives them the sheet of brood, 

 holding them there so that they won't abscond. Whether 

 they would go on with that and rear a queen and swarm 

 again I don't know, because I always stopped them and took 

 them away. But it is, I think, a pretty common thing that 

 they start cells when you give a frame of brood to a shaken 

 swarm. 



Mr. Whitney — Perhaps I don't understand. When I said 

 they didn't abscond when I put them on frames of comb it 

 is simply old combs with the queen. I don't understand that 

 they would commence queen-cells under such circumstances 

 as that. But when I give them uncapped brood and eggs I 

 have never had them trouble me by attempting to abscond, 

 but they do rear queen-cells, and they will rear a queen un- 

 less you introduce one, of course. I would think if they didn't 

 commence making queen-cells you would have a very weak 

 colony of bees very soon. When parts of mine leave the hive 

 sometimes I have shut them in for 36 hours, and especially 

 if I move that hive away from the old stand; and I have 

 never had any trouble, and I have shaken swarms a great 

 many times. 



Mr. Abbott — I made shook swarms long before I ever 

 heard tell of shook swarms, at least I suppose I was doing 

 the same thing. I did this: I took a colony of bees and 



