436 



FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



ing the brood in the center of the weak colony, and the combs containing the 

 least brood in the center of the now strong colony. Proceed as before, and 

 put on your surplus arrangement, and out of two weak colonies you have one 

 ready (or the honey flow, and my experience is that you will receive more 

 honey and of a better quality from tliis one than you would from the two if 

 left to build up during the honey flow, besides you have saved yourself the 

 trouble of going over the apiary so many times as required in the bit of comb 

 plan. 



We will now consider the apiary sup- 

 plied with surplus arrangements, and that 

 the bees are well at work in the sections 

 and the busy season is upon us. The sec- 

 tions must now be watched closely, and as 

 fast as the crates are about two-thirds full 

 of honey, raise them up and put an empty 

 one arranged as the first under it; this 

 leaves a space to be filled with combs and 

 honey between the brood nest and the par- 

 tially filled crate on top. This is just as 

 the bees don't want it, and as a rule, just 

 as they are coming to a point where the 

 swarming fever is liable to overtake them, 

 they find this great hole in their midst, 

 and it is surprising how they will double 

 their energies to fill this cavity; at the 

 same time they will be finishing the upper 

 crate. It is my custom at this stage of the 

 proceedings to go over the apiary every 

 week. My crates are so arranged that I 

 can draw out all the finished sections, 

 replacing them with empty ones, keeping the crate containing the least 

 honey at the bottom and the one nearest completion at the top. This prevents 

 the bees running over the finished section, and removing it as fast as finished 

 gives it you in its virgin whiteness. This system largely does away with the 

 swarming impulse just at the height of the honey flow ; but occasionally a 

 swarm will issue in spite of everything. In this case what shall we do to 

 prevent the cessation of honey storing in the surplus department? 



My plan is as follows : As soon as the swarm has left the parent hive, 

 take off the surplus arrangements, lift out all but one comb and carry them 

 to a new stand. Put in from four to six empty frames, according to the size 

 of the swarm, filling the rest of the brood chamber with a division board put 

 on the zinc honey board and surplus cases just removed, and close the hive. 

 Proceed with a basket and shake the swarm from their alighting place into 

 it, and dump them in front of the hive from which they came; watch them 

 closely until sure you have the queen, and the work is done. The remain- 

 inb bees at the alighting place, as soon as they discover the absence of the 

 queen, will return to the old stand ; so will the field bees remaining on the 

 seven combs you have carried to the new stand, and all the bees in the fields 

 returning home gives you the same working force you had before. The 

 desire for swarming is satisfied and the work in the sections goes on as 

 though nothing had happened. Your seven combs have plenty of nurse 



Hilton's Hive Open, Showing Surplus 

 Arrangement. 



