THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



109 



neijlect just at this time may >(reatly les- 

 sen the success of our season's work. 



I formerly insi)ecteil the whole apiary 

 in early spring to ascertain the condition 

 of each colony. I don't do that now. 

 When soft maples are in bloom I walk 

 through the apiary in the warm part of 

 the day, closely observing each hive the 

 outside appearance of which tells to the 

 experienced observer the condition with- 

 in. The bees should be dropping in front 

 with hugh loads of pollen; and young 

 bees should be sporting in front of this 

 and that hive. It would be considerable 

 of a drawback to open these active colo- 

 nies at this time; as they are in the best 

 possible condition for brood rearing, with 

 every little crevice completely sealed. 

 But now you find a colony gathering only 

 slight loads of pollen. Yes, it is weak 

 and discouraged. Let's lift it. O, how 

 light! We will open it. Not as weak as 

 we thought, but almost starving. We 

 wait until almost sundown, to avoid rob- 

 bers; and give it two combs of honey. 

 Should we not have the honey we feed 

 with a divison-board feeder, and cover up 

 wann. In about ten daj's, more feed 

 should be given, and so on, till the har- 

 vest arrives. 



We now come to a hive where the bees 

 are carrying in but little pollen, and ap- 

 pear restless. See them running round 

 the entrance, and up the front of the hive, 

 and flying off a few feet, and then return- 

 ing. Yes, they are queenle.ss, but we will 

 only contract the entrance and let them 

 alone, and hive the first swarm in with 

 them; as it has never paid us to tinker 

 with queenless bees. 



So time passes on, and our colonies are 

 rapidly filling up with young and hatch- 

 ing bees. The wide awake bee-keeper 

 who buys his bread and butter with hon- 

 ey will get all of his sections, supers, etc., 

 ready during this calm just preceding the 

 storm. I formerly waited till the flow 

 was in progress, and the combs begin- 

 ning to whiten with new wax before put- 

 ting on boxes. I don't wait now; as it has 

 a tendency to bring about swarming; and, 



as a comb honey producer, I have found 

 it profitable to discourage swarming in 

 every possible way, and still leave the 

 bees in a normal condition. About ten 

 days before the expected flow I place a 

 super full of boxes with starters and two 

 or three bait sections on each hive. Be- 

 fore the flow comes the bees will become 

 accustomed to their new addition, and 

 will enter it with a rush when honey 

 comes in freely. 



When our first super is about full, and 

 all the center sections sealed, we change 

 the full ones to the outside, and the part- 

 ly filled ones to the center, lift this super, 

 and place an empty one under. 



Should a swarm issue, we hive it on the 

 old stand, moving the parent colon}' 

 to a new location. We formerly put on 

 boxes, or changed the super from the 

 old colony, to the swarm at once but we 

 don't do that any more, as, by so doing, 

 we have had many a fine box spoiled 

 with brood. [Use a queen excluder. Ed. 

 Review.] We now wait 24 hours. By this 

 time the queen has her brood-nest started, 

 and will not leave it. When our next 

 swarm comes oi:t, if we desire no increase, 

 we shake most of the bees from the old 

 colony (that first swarmed) in front of 

 its swarm; hive the new swarm in it, (the 

 old colony) and place it on the sta-id of 

 the colony that swarmed last. The queen 

 will make short work of the queen cells, 

 and this colony will be in a condition to 

 gather a big surplus. However, if we de- 

 sire some increase, coupled with a fair 

 surplus, we hive all swarms as advised in 

 No. I, but look out for the after-swarms 

 that will surely come in from 9 to 17 days. 

 We do nothing to prevent the first one 

 coming, just let it come when it wants to, 

 and, while it is settled, go to the old hive 

 and cut out all the cells, which are now 

 easily found by the scarcity of bees. In 

 doing this we secure many fine young 

 queens by Miller's "pulling" method. 

 These I let run down into the sections of 

 colonies having old queens that need 

 superseding; or into hives that have just 

 swarmed, to prevent after-swartus. Wheu 



