THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



175 



THE SECOND VISIT, IN WHICH QUEENS 

 ARE REMOVED. 



I keep close watch of what the bees 

 are doing at home, and, in from eight to 

 fifteen days, depending upon the weather 

 and the honey flow, I make my second 

 visit. The sections in the first supers 

 will probably be well-drawn and partly 

 filled with nectar. I put on the supers 

 immediately upon my arrival at the 

 yard, as the clustering of the bees in the 

 new supers draws the bees up out of 

 the brood nests, and makes the work of 

 examination for swarm-preparations 

 much easier. After the supers are all 

 on, I begin, where I began putting on 

 supers, and examine the brood nests for 

 indications of preparations for swarming. 

 If I find only cell cups, but no eggs in 

 them, I close the hive and pass on. If I 

 find any cups containing eggs, or hatched 

 larvae, even if ever so small, I remove 

 the queen. If she is an extra good one I 

 save her in a nucleus; otherwise, I kill 

 her. If I find the swarming impulse to 

 be quite general, I remove the queens 

 from two-thirds of the colonies; or more 

 than that if there are that number pre- 

 preparing to swarm. If I find nearly the 

 whole apiary preparing to swarm, as I 

 have on several occasions, I save in 

 nuclei as many of my best old queens 

 as will be needed to furnish combs of 

 larvae at my next visit. With a boy to 

 help me I can uncover a hive, remove 

 the supers, find the queen, replace the 

 supers, and cover the hive, at the rate of 

 one hive every seven minutes. I seldom 

 fail of finding the queen the first time 

 over the combs. Often, when there is 

 not much work to be done, I can go over 

 the yard in three hours, putting on, or 

 changing supers, looking for queens, or 

 the conditions of each colony. It matters 

 not how far advanced an apiary is in 

 its preparations for swarming, I can so 

 treat every colony that there will be no 

 more swarming for at least eight days 

 more. 



In eight days, or, in nine days, at the 

 utmost, from the time that I removed the 



queens, I must return and destroy all 

 queen cells; as it is possible to have a 

 young queen hatched out on the 10th 

 day after the removal of the old queen. 

 It will not answer to destroy the cells 

 before the eighth day, as there may yet 

 be an unsealed larva over which the 

 bees will construct a queen cell. The 

 queen from such an old larva would be 

 worthless, but it can lead the bees to the 

 woods just as well as a good queen. At 

 this visit I first examine some of the 

 colonies that have not made any previous 

 attempts at swarming, and still retain 

 queens. When I find such a colony that 

 is still without queen cells, I remove two 

 combs of young larvae, replacing them 

 with empty combs, starters, or sheets of 

 foundation. I work on this class of 

 colonies until I have a hive full of combs 

 of young larvae, when I commence on 

 the queenless colonies, destroying every 

 queen cell, and giving each colony a 

 comb of young larvae, from the lot that 1 

 have just taken from the other hives. 

 If by any possibility a young queen is 

 found hatched, no larvae are given, as it 

 would lead to swarming. When my 

 stock of combs of larvae is exhausted, I 

 return to the colonies that still have their 

 queens, and continue the work of examin- 

 ation until my stock is again replenished. 

 I thus continue to examine, alternately, 

 the two classes of colonies until I am 

 through the yard. As 1 go along with 

 this work I also note and mark the 

 colonies that need supers. 



The giving of this comb of larvae satis- 

 fies the bees. They have babies to feed, 

 and they will continue the work of 

 honey gathering, as they know that it 

 will be impossible to swarm within 12 

 or 15 days. Their queen cells are all 

 gone, and they go to work energetically 

 to build another lot; and, by the time that 

 this lot of queens is ready to hatch, the 

 swarming fever has been cured. 



The next visit will be about the ninth 

 day after destroying the first batch of 

 queen cells, and giving the combs of 

 young larvae. This will be^ about 18 



