246 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



thirty hours, and I have often carried 

 such for from one to twelve hours, in 

 the way here given, without the loss 

 or injury of a single queen. In this 

 work the wadding is far preferable to 

 cotton batting, for the glazing on the 

 wadding keeps the cotton from sticking 

 to the cell or cell-protector, as it is 

 otherwise liable to do. 



After killing the queen the frames 

 are iill put back in the hive, when two 

 of che center ones are pried apart 

 enough so that the cell- protector will 

 go down just under the top-bar to the 

 frame, when the frames are brought 

 back to place aga'H, thus imbedding 

 the protector into the comb so it is 

 securely fastened there until removed 

 by the apiarist. As this is the season 

 of the year when the bees do most of 

 their superseding of queens (it seems 

 so natural to them), my loss in using 

 this plan will not average more than 

 one queen-cell out of twenty given. So 

 small a loss will not pay for a special 

 visit to the apiary to ;iscertain whetiier 

 colonies so treated obtain laying 

 queens or not — especially as the colony 

 which will occasionally destroy a cell 

 or kill the just-emerged virgin queen 

 have brood of their own from which to 

 rear a queen, so the loss is never very 

 great should an occasional cell be 

 destioyed. Of course there is a chance 

 that the young queen may be lost when 

 going out to meet the drone, in which 

 case that colony is doomed unless 

 rescued by the apiarist. In such a 

 case as tliis the observing apiarist will 

 easily discover the loss by an outside 

 diagnosis of such colonies at a later 

 visit to the apiary. This requeening 

 at this time is so easil}' done that there 

 is no excuse for having poor queens at 

 the out-apiary. 



The reader ma}' think that what is 

 here given conflicts with what I have 

 written in the past about allowing the 

 bees to take care of the superseding of 

 their queens themselves. With the 

 small and contracted brood-chamber, 

 I still hold that the bees will take care 

 of that matter fully as well as the 

 apiarist can; but with this system of 

 working, and that with ten-frame 

 Langstroth hives, a queen will la}' 

 nearly as many egg"s in two years as 

 she would under the contraction sys- 

 tem in three or four years; so that anj' 

 queen which ii more than two y-^rs 

 old is a'.niost sure to be played <;; ■ : 

 therefore I .•i:vke it a practice w'lli -.is 

 plan to supersede all queens wh:cM .ire 

 two years old at this time, and in the 



w;i}' given above. This plan is one of 

 strenuousness too, all the way through, 

 by which we get a multitude of bees in 

 th«; field at all times during the honey 

 har -.^sts; and even when ordinary col- 

 onies are doing nothing, or securing 

 only a living, these rousing colonies 

 are actually laying up stores. Last 

 May. when the colonies as ordinarily 

 worked were living only from hand to 

 month, these big colonies at the out- 

 apiary actually laid up from 20 to 30 

 pounds of stores in the combs above 

 their brood. And then when other col- 

 onies were working a very little or not 

 at all in the section supers, these were 

 completing their first 44 sections, and 

 well at work in the second super of 44 

 above. Such work as this is enough to 

 cause the queen to produce all the eggs 

 in her ovaries in about two years; and 

 as the work of superseding as given 

 above is easily done, I think it well 

 pays to kill any queens when two 

 years old, and give a cell to the colony, 

 unless it is a queen that has proven 

 herself of extra value, when I would 

 keep her to breed from the next year, 

 should she live through. 



Just a word about what a populous 

 colony will do: Some of you may re- 

 member that some of my colonies were 

 extra strong last spring on account of 

 the bee? "drifting" when set out of the 

 cellar, well, it was a surprise, even to 

 me, to see the amount of honey that 

 some of these colonies brought in from 

 the few scattering willows, elms, soft 

 maples, and the like Ordinary col- 

 onies gathered little more than the}' 

 consumed but these extra colonies tilled 

 several combs besides. 



OUT DOOR FetDING. 



Some of Ihe Abuses, and How It May be 

 Used to Prevent Robbing. 



Most of us have looked upon the ex- 

 posure of sweets during a honey dearth, 

 as H sure forerunner of honey robbing, 

 and, as usually done, so it is, but it 

 seems it is possible by this very ex- 

 posure to attract the bfes aztay from 

 ;uiy hi\e that is opentd. Last year 



