106 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



the last of the season the bees got a 

 good amount of fall honey for the win- 

 ter stores. 



Mr. Taylor — Would you really like to 

 have us believe that your bees did not 

 swarm because you have been breeding 

 for non-swarming, rather than they did 

 not swarm because there was no honey 

 coming in? 



Dr. Miller — I doesn't matter so much 

 what I believe about that — 



Mr. Taylor — No; I don't ask you 

 what you believe, but I ask you what 

 you would have us believe. 



Dr. Miller — You asked me what I 

 think. I am going to give you one or 

 two facts, and you can believe just what 

 you like. I spoke of what was the fact 

 this year. Now years ago I had just 

 the same kind of season that I had this, 

 and I had ten times as much swarming 

 as I had this year. 



Mr. Taylor — Yes. Do bees ever do 

 an3rthing twice alike? 



Dr. Miller — No; not mine. 



Mr. Taylor— Well ! 



Mr. Lyman — Dr. Miller referred, I 

 think, to the nurse-bees. I would Hke 

 to ask, when a swarm issues natural- 

 ly, where will you find the majority of 

 the nurse-bees — going with the swarm 

 or remaining in the hive? 



Dr. Miller — I have been taught that 

 it is a mixture, that all sorts go and 

 all sorts stay. I think I have seen the 

 statement that young bees go, and some- 

 times the statement that old bees go. I 

 think that the general concensus of opin- 

 ion is that it is a mixed lot. There are 

 field-bees that go with the swarm, and 

 here are nurse-bees that go with the 

 swarm — all sorts. 



Mr. Taylor — I have seen a good deal 

 of swarming, and I think that pretty 

 much all the bees that can fly in the 

 hive — a large portion of them, that can 

 fly and get out in time to go with the 

 swarm — go, and often bees come out 

 that can not fly, and try to get away and 

 can not, because they are too young. 

 If the nurse-bees can fly, then the nurse- 

 bees go with the swarm, and if they 

 can not — if they are too young to fly 

 —of course they have to stay behind. 



Mr. Meredith — From 103 colonies of 

 bees last spring I had 2 swarms. Three 

 years ago from 48 colonies I had pos- 

 sibly 60 swarms, and I have come to the 

 conclusion that bees look a little farther 

 ahead for what they expect to be than 

 possibly other animals, and I should 

 judge, from what I have seen, that un- 



less the conditions are favorable for 

 a honey-flow, the bees will proceed to 

 swarm. 



J. C. Wheeler — I was just recalling 

 a thing that happened, and wondering 

 how long ago I remembered the subject 

 and these very same arguments used. 

 I believe it was 15 or 16 years ago, in 

 this very same convention, the very 

 same question came up, and the very 

 same answers were made. I believe Dr. 

 Miller made very nearly the same speech 

 and I was wondering, in 15 years how 

 much advancement had been made. Prob- 

 ably every year we have discussed this 

 question, and I doubt if we have any 

 of us advanced one step along the line 

 of keeping bees from swarming, or 

 eliminating Jhe swarming instinct. I 

 may be mistaken. 



F. L. Kimmey — I am young in the 

 business, and I would like to have you 

 continue repeating the things that were 

 said before I was here. While it is 

 true, as Mr. Wheeler says, we do not 

 gain fast — we sometimes say there is 

 nothing new under the sun — yet what 

 we do gain comes in this way, and 

 I, for one, vote to keep it up. Two 

 years ago — and when I mention this I 

 hope we won't fall into the error of 

 thinking that Dr. Miller has produced 

 bees that do not swarm because they 

 did not swarm this year. The year pre- 

 ceding this there were few swarms ; then 

 they swarmed oftener than I had colon- 

 ies, that is, some of them swarmed twice 

 and some three times. I did all I could 

 to prevent it. This year I did not see 

 a single swarm, with double the num- 

 ber of colonies, until I stopped watching 

 for them. There seemed to be some- 

 thing in the season. I did not see ^ 

 single swarm until away along in the.'? 

 month of August I discovered one hang- 

 ing on a tree, and after that I found 

 another, and away late, about Oct. S, 

 I found a swarm hanging on a tree. 

 I mention this fact to show that there 

 .must have been something in the season 

 rather than in the bees, for I had done 

 nothing whatever to produce a race of 

 bees that would be non-swarming. Yet 

 I believe, and I sincerely hope, that 

 Dr. Miller is right, that you can produce 

 a strain of bees that will be non-swarm- 

 ing; and I think from the success that 

 has been achieved in other lines of 

 race-breeding, that we can do something 

 in that direction. 



W. B. Chapman — I would like to say 

 in relation to the subject under discus- 



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