ALEXANDER’S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 53 
be changed to a long rich one, for the bees will simply be helped to 
carry out their natural instinct, and success will be the result. 
August, 1907. 
PRODUCING COMB HONEY. 
HOW TO RAISE A GREATER PROPORTION OF FANCY HONEY; A PLAN TO HOLD BACK 
SWARMING AND AT THE SAME TIME KEEP WORK GOING IN 
THE SUPER DURING A LULL IN THE HONEY-FLOW. 
Although it is now about 20 years since I gave up this part of the 
bee business I often think I should like to call the attention of comb- 
honey producers to some important points connected with this branch 
of bee-keeping. The natural desire to swarm has always been a serious 
trouble in producing comb honey. Then the frequent change in our 
atmosphere, causing the flowers to stop secreting nectar sometimes for 
several days at a time during our otherwise best harvest is another 
serious trouble in producing comb honey of the finest quality; and with 
many the trouble of getting their sections all well filled at the close of 
the season is a hard problem to solve. 
We will first consider the natural desire to swarm. This is the 
honey-bees’ natural way to perpetuate their race, and is the most strongly 
imbeded law, not only of the whole animal world, but the vegetable 
world also, except the desire for food, of any law connected with our 
existence. This is why we have made no progress in changing the nature 
of our bees since man first tried to domesticate them. It is true that 
certain strains, or, more properly speaking, certain families, have far 
less desire to swarm than others. This same law can also be said to 
apply to other animals, including man. Now let us see what we can do 
to prevent the desire on the part of our bees to carry out this main 
object of their creation. First we will keep only bees that have but 
little natural desire to swarm; then we will raise their hives from their 
bottom-boards all around about 4% inch as soon as the weather begins 
to get warm. In this way we shall give them two or three entrances 
in the shade at all hours of the day. This, I know from experience, 
goes a long way to prevent the desire to swarm. Then we will supersede 
every queen at the commencement of our harvest, with one just fer- 
tilized, which, we all know, of itself will to quite an extent prevent the 
desire to swarm. Then we will see that their hives, including their 
clamps of sections, contain but a small amount of capped honey for any 
length of time. 
Here is one thing that I used to be very particular about during 
my thirty years of producing comb honey: As fast as I could find four 
or five nicely finished sections in a clamp they were taken out and 
empty ones put in their place, never using more than two clamps at 
one time on a hive. I don’t wonder that your bees swarm when two or 
three clamps of mostly capped sections on a hive and a lot of capped 
