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THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



days after the removal of the queens. 

 Nearly all of the brood has hatched; the 

 hives are overflowing with young bees; 

 the working forces have been kept 

 together; the brood nests are nearly full 

 of white honey; and the bees' greatest 

 desire now is for new mothers. This 

 can now be gratified by simply destroy- 

 ing all the cells except one (the largest 

 and finest) in each hive. I always 

 place the comb of larvae in the same 

 position in each hive, hence, lose no time 

 in finding it. Two minutes per hive is 

 time enough to use in destroying the 

 cells, and it will not be necessary to 

 again examine these colonies. As the 

 young queens begin to lay, the bees will 

 remove the honey from the brood nests 

 into the sections. Another advantage of 

 the plan is that we save the honey that 

 would have been used in rearing a lot of 

 bees that would have become simply 

 consumers of still more honey during the 

 hot part of the season when there is 

 little to gather. 



WHY IT IS NECESSARY TO BUILD TWO 

 BATCHES OF CELLS. 



I have been asked why it would not 

 answer to allow one queen to hatch from 

 the first batch of cells. The greatest 

 objection is that the colonies have not 

 yet been cured of the swarming impulse. 

 Any cell that is overlooked will lead to 

 swarming. If a virgin queen returns to 

 the wrong hive, there is swarming. 

 Once the swarming-note is heard in an 

 apiary in which young queens are taking 

 their flights, there is danger of a panic 

 of swarming. By the time that the 

 second lot of queens is ready to hatch, 

 the swarming fever is over and past. 



IMPROVING OR ITALIANIZING STOCK. 



This method also offers an excellent 

 opportunity to Italianize or improve our 

 stock. At the fourth trip, simply destroy 

 all cells and introduce Italian queens by 

 some of the usual methods. Just a word 

 of caution: It is not safe to introduce 

 laying queens until the swarming fever 

 has abated— unless you like the fun of 



chasing swarms. If I have ordered 

 queens, and they don't arrive by the time 

 that it is necessary to destroy the cells, I 

 keep the colonies in a normal condition 

 by giving each a comb of larvae as often 

 as once in nine days, until the queens 

 arrive. When introducing the queens I 

 remove all unsealed brood; otherwise, 

 the bees might prefer to kill the queen, 

 and rear one of their own. I consider 

 thrifty, young queens of vast importance. 

 If we have these, and our bees have 

 been properly housed and provisioned, 

 our colonies will be stocked with young 

 bees to carry them over the trying 

 months of March and April. 



Four trips are all that I find it neces- 

 sary to make during the honey harvest. 

 On the first trip I equalize the brood and 

 put the bees in condition to stay at home 

 and enter the supers; and put supers on 

 all that are in condition to receive them. 

 On the second trip I remove queens 

 where there is danger of swarming; 

 and give supers where needed. On the 

 third trip I give supers where needed, 

 and destroy queen cells; giving each 

 queenless colony a comb of young larvae. 

 On the fourth trip I simply destroy all 

 cells except one in each colony. Four 

 days' work, and the crop is secured! 



THE PROFITS OF THIS SYSTEM. 



The largest crop of honey that I ever 

 secured was 150 pounds, per colony, 

 spring count. The smallest was 40 

 pounds per colony. If we have a good 

 location, and should secure 50 pounds 

 of honey per colony, even in a poor year, 

 then 100 colonies would furnish 5,000 

 pounds of honey. Three-fourths of this 

 ought to sell at the highest market price. 

 It ought to bring at least 13 cts. per 

 pound, right through, for all of the 

 grades. This would be $650. From 

 this must be deducted the cost of sections, 

 foundation and shipping cases, about $80, 

 leaving $570 for the labor. My net 

 profits, for the past three years, have 

 not been far from $1,000 per year. 

 Sand Lake, Mich,, March 10, 1910. 



