138 



THE BEE-KEEPERS* REVIEW. 



for seven days, if it is desirable to form 

 nuclei, simply lift the top story off and 

 divide the colony into two-frame nuclei; 

 taking care that each has a queen cell. 

 As most of the bees on these combs are 

 young ones they will usually stay wher- 

 ever they are put. As fast as the other 

 colonies swarm, after keeping the brood 

 on top of each hive for seven days, until. it 

 is mostly sealed, we can shake all the 

 bees off in front of the hive to which they 

 belong, and divide up the brood among 

 the nuclei. If desirable to keep down 

 increase, the brood from several colonies 

 may be tiered-up three or four stories 

 high on these same nuclei, and. consider- 

 able extracted honey may often be ob- 

 tained in this way; or, if the bee-keeper 

 prefers, he can keep these well filled 

 combs for winter stores; but, so long as I 

 can buy granulated sugar for five o- six 

 cents per pound, I prefer to extract all 

 the honey and feed sugar syrup in the 

 fall. In this locality the bees seldom 

 gather enough to carry them through the 

 winter; hence I am compelled to feed. 

 By this method I have been able to ob- 

 tain one hundred pounds of comb honey 

 from one colony; besides getting some 

 extracted from the new swarms b}' tiering 

 up the brood. This is not a remarkable 

 yield when compared with other locali- 

 ties; but is nearly double the amount I 

 used to get before I practiced contracting 

 the brood-nest after swarming. 



A few more words about queen-traps: 

 I keep the trap on for three days after 

 hiving a swarm; as, occasionally, I have 

 what I call a " crank swarm, " one that 

 will come out and attem.pt to leave, or 

 abscond, and no doubt would if the queen 

 was not caught in the trap. This is an- 

 other valuable point in favor of the trap, 

 viz., that you can compel a swarm to stay 

 in any hive you may wish. I never had 

 one try to leave after the third day. Af- 

 ter that time the trap may be put away 

 for the season, unless it is wanted to 

 catch and destroy undesirable drones. 

 Right here permit me to say that I would 

 not use or recommend the queen-traps 



that are made and sold by most of the 

 supply dealers at the present time. The 

 traps I use, and the kind I would recom- 

 mend others to use, are the same as orig- 

 inall}? made by Mr. Alley. There should 

 be no way for the bees to get into the up- 

 per story of the trap except through the 

 wiie cones through which the queen and 

 drones must pass to the ui)per story, or 

 trap, and there should be no possible way 

 for the workers to get out except through 

 the perforated zinc at the top of the trap; 

 and the front of the upper story of the 

 trap should be covered with tvire cloth. 

 This will enable the bee-keeper to see the 

 queen more readil}', and she will remain 

 more (juiet and not worrv and struggle 

 and try to get out as she will through the 

 perforated zinc. 



Ashbourne, Pa., Feb. 3, 1900. 



DANGER FROM THE IMPOR- 

 TATION OR vSHIPPING OF 

 FO-IIL BROODY HONEY. 

 BY HARRY'' LATHROP. 

 For two years past the bee-keepers of 

 Wisconsin have had only fair yields of 

 honey; but they 

 have been favor- 

 ed bv reason of 

 a .shortage in 

 other localities, 

 and an unlooked- 

 for improvement 

 in plrjces. Now, 

 while there is a 

 fair prospect for 

 a crop in 1900, 

 all indications 

 point to a big 

 crop in California. This will have a ten- 

 dency to lower prices again, as, if Califor- 

 nia has a crop, she will throw large quan- 

 tities of it upon the Eastern market. The 

 larger part of it will be in the extracted 

 form. For this reason it may be that 

 comb honey will move at better prices 

 here than will extracted. Those who 



