88 



SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



had this same introducing box for more 

 than three years in a crude form. 

 But, the question to be answered is, 

 does it prevent swarming? I will say 

 it does positively and entirely, on the 

 theory that swarmdng is the result of 

 the bees having their honey sacks con- 

 tinually filled with honey and secret- 

 ing this kile food and having no place 

 to deposit it, and an uppeV story, only 

 one story on, of comb honey, and a 

 small hive which induces swarming. 

 Am I correct in that? 



The President: Presume you have a 

 strong colony of bees on empty combs 

 and one comb of brood intrduced, how 

 about the production of kile then? 



Mr. Pressler: Do they swarm under 

 those conditions? 



The President: No. Take a ten 

 frame hive, will they swarm then? 



Mr. Pressler: I don't think they will. 

 I say it is not alone the introduction 

 of kile food, but all these conditions: 

 Having too much honey in their sacks 

 and no place to deposit it, a small hive, 

 ventilation, and all those things enter 

 into the causes of swarming. The 

 question is to avoid that. I never 

 tried to introduce a plurality of queens 

 under the comb honey system, but 

 under the extracting system. I pre- 

 sume you are all aware of the fact 

 that Mr. Alexander runs for extracting. 

 It may not work w-hile you are run- 

 ning for comb honey, but it does for 

 extracting and prevents swarming. 

 The theory is this: You give them 

 plenty of ventilation and plenty of 

 hive sell room to deposit their honey. 

 The consequence is that this overpro- 

 duction of kile food does not take 

 place. You have no occasion to un- 

 cap any sealed honey in the brood 

 chamber; you have your plurality of 

 queens there to do that. 



The President: Don't you think the 

 production of kile food is optional with 

 the bees and according to the require- 

 ments of the brood nest? 



Mr. Pressler: Yes. 



The President: So they will not be 

 overcharged with that at any timer it' 

 is simply the honey that will overload 

 their sacks? 



Mr. Pressler: Yes. It is my opinion 

 that when you have a heavy flow of 

 honey that the bees are like human be- 

 ings, they are uncomfortable on ac- 

 count of having too much honey in 

 their honey sacks. 



Mr. Hershisher: Do you allow the 

 bees to cap the honey in your ex- 

 tracting chamber? 



Mr. Pressler: I have been so busy 

 that I have raised the first super up 

 and put another twelve frames on 

 top, and raised the first twelve frames 

 up, when they were partly filled, and 

 put another body of empty combs un- 

 der and let them cap it afterwards. 



The only sad feature about plur- 

 ality of queens with me is that it 

 has been argued that they cannot be 

 wintered over. I believe it pays if 

 you can only keep them in during the 

 honey flow or prior to that. I believe 

 it pays better than to follow Mr. Hol- 

 terman's plan. 



The President: How many colonies 

 have you tried that experiment of 

 plurality of queens on at the same 

 time? 



Mr. Pressler: Twenty at one time in 

 one yard. I had no later than Satur- 

 day two queens, without the perforat- 

 ing zinc, in a hive, but I noticed there 

 were two clusters in the hive, and 

 this is the first time I have succeed- 

 ed. The reason I did not experiment 

 along that line this year so much as 

 I did last year is because I became 

 afflicted with my eyes, and during 

 April, May, June and July I could not 

 tell the difference between a queen 

 and a drone. I had to depend on out- 

 side help. It is only three weeks since 

 I have been able to go without dark 

 glasses. It was my purpose to have 

 no less than a dozen or more colonies 

 go into winter quarters with from two 

 to four queens, but on account of my 

 eyes I have failed to rear the queens. 



Mr. Moe: To come back to the orig- 

 inal question. I have a lot of theories, 

 but I find they are no good frequently. 

 I want to read what Mr. Alexander 

 says because it comes back to your 

 question: "We have never had a col- 

 ony with two or three or more laying 

 queens prepared to swarm." I have 

 not been able to carry on an experi- 

 ment in that line that was worth any- 

 thing. I had quite a lengthy talk with 

 a neighbor bee-keeper, and of course 

 he said he had and was very much 

 interested in it. He claimed he had 

 tried it very successfully and was se- 

 cure from the swarming fever. I am 

 not sure, however, how far that bee- 

 keeper's experiment is to be a relia- 

 ble guide for the most of us. I hap- 

 pened to talk with another bee-keeper 

 who seemed to think that it was not. 



Mr. Hershisher: I am not much of 

 an advocate of talking theories; I am 

 more of an advocate of listening to 

 facts; but I think I have discovered 



