152 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



swarui, will give a good account of 

 ilsek*. 



The tirst time going over tliem (after 

 your established date) you will per- 

 haps find from six to ten per cent that 

 show a disposition to swaim; the iiexi 

 Inne fi'oni twflve to fifteen per cenr: 

 the ne\i time, which is the third weiMv 

 o\' swarming, hack to from five to ten 

 per ct-nt; the next visit should practi- 

 cally close the season. 



If the swarms in the parent hives 

 are not satisfactory when the brood 

 is hatched, 1 unite them so tliey will 

 be in condition for the August flow, 

 which you know is generally (piite 

 good with us. 



As I said before, this plan means 

 AA'ork, for Avhen you step into an apiary 

 of, say, 125 colonies, all supered, and 

 thoroughly go through them all and 

 make from t"n to fifteen swarms (after 

 finding the queens) and properly level 

 up the liives and leave the apiary in 

 good condition and safe to leave for 

 another six days, you will admit you 

 have done a days' work, even with a 

 good helper. 



Some will say its not safe to leave 

 them that long and that swarms will 

 be lost. I say, no, not if every swarm 

 is shaken tliat has eggs in the cell 

 cups. My experience is that very few 

 colonies in normal condition cast 

 swarms until they are good and ready. 



I have not given much of minor de- 

 tail for the execution of this plan as 

 my time is now limited. 



Swarming at the best is one pro- 

 voking and perplexing feature of the 

 season's work, and my motto in ])ro- 

 ducing conil) honey is to have as little 

 increase as possible, but when a colony 

 wants to swarm, I swarm it, and the 

 above ])lan is more satisfactoi'y to me 

 than to hire some man or l)oy to go to 

 sleep under a tree and allow many 

 more swarms to abscond th;m by the 

 above nu'thod. 



Of course this method has no more 

 l>rime swaiins than natural swarming, 

 and has Uw advantage of no after- 

 swarms, and I think will prove satis- 

 factory to any one wlio does the work 

 thoroughlv." 



TRANSFERRING BEES. 



The Modern Method is far Ahead of the old 



Method of Cobblinjr up Crooked Combs 



and Tying them into Frames. 



Very freqtiently I receive inciuirles 

 reading like the following: 



"I have 20 co'onies of black bees in 

 old l)ox liives. and I wish to transfer 

 them and introduce Italians queens. 

 Please give me some light on the sub- 

 ject." 



On this point I can do no better 

 than to copy one of the chapters from 

 Mr. Ileddon's book. "Success in Bee 

 Culture." It reads as follows: 



"As I cannot ailvice the practice, I 

 will not describe the old method of 

 transferring l)ees, by opening the 

 hives, cutting out the combs full of 

 brood and honey, and covered with 

 l)ees, cutting them in pieces to fill, or 

 partially fill, different shapes of frames, 

 tying them into the same, and finally 

 ending vrith a very imperfect Job com- 

 pared with that given us by the new 

 method, which has been published in 

 some of the papers and given the name 

 of ^Modern Transferring, which I be- 

 lieve has been ci'edited by common 

 consent to tlu> atithor. 



I will now tell you how I accom- 

 plish this perfect change of a colony, 

 from one hive to anotliei". by (luoting 

 from my nrtich' on page ."'><>2 of (Tlean- 

 ings, for ISS."!: 



.\bout swarming time I take one of 

 my Langstroth hives, containing eight 

 (Jiven pi'ess<'(l wire frames of founda- 

 tion, and, with smoker in hand, I ap- 



