234 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



SIMPLIFIED QUEEN REARING. 



Bees at Swarthmore seem to act very 

 differently from those at this altitude. 

 If Mr. Pratt had said, "No matter 

 whether you leave the queen with the 

 brood or not, if there are not sufficient 

 bees to care for it, thousands of eggs and 

 larvae may be removed," his warning 

 would apply here. I am inclined to 

 suspect that it is not dequeening the 

 bees that causes such wholesale loss of 

 brood at Swarthmore, but, rather, what 

 we might call de-beeing the brood—see 

 the moral? 



I have never noticed any loss of eggs 

 or larvae that could be traced to the 

 want of a queen, but a cell-building 

 colony, having only a few select larvae, 

 will sometimes "use up" all of the larvae 

 they accept, probably as material for 

 royal jelly. 



Speaking of queen rearing, never have 

 your future bee mothers developed in a 

 hive that has been, or that is being, 

 drained of its field workers, nor in a 

 colony that has more open brood than 

 bees to properly care for it. To avoid 

 ever having any such colonies, if shaking 

 is practiced, leave plenty of bees with 

 the brood, or better, shake all off and 

 place brood over a weak colony over 

 zinc. This will soon make another good 

 "shake." 



If you use one of the trapping devices 

 to drain the bees away from the brood, 

 arrange the "trap" so that some of the 

 bees will return to their brood. 



Aim to have plenty of choice ripe cells 

 or young queens on hand, and wherever 

 there is a suitable opportunity to do so, 

 work one in in place of an old queen. 



WHITER SECTIONS FINISHED OVER NEW 

 BROOD COMBS. 



In most swarm circumventions, Doo- 

 little's excepted, the old bees of the new 

 "swarm" are allowed to build new combs 

 in the brood chamber as well as in the 

 sections. This helps to satisfy their 

 desire for a new home. 



Starters only, in the brood frames, are 

 preferable to full sheets of foundation; 



but, to avoid unnecessary and expensive 

 secretion of wax for a full set of brood 

 combs, and, in order to head off the 

 production of drone comb before it begins, 

 after there are from three to five new 

 combs about finished, and when swarm- 

 ing is now given up, the least used start- 

 ers may be replaced with full sheets of 

 foundation or with drawn combs. The 

 latter are best added one or two at a 

 time between the brood. 



Comb honey is finished whiter over 

 new brood combs than over old ones, 

 but if the empty supers are added below 

 the partly filled ones, thus causing the 

 sections to be finished farther above the 

 brood, dark combs below will have less 

 effect. 



Towards the close of the honey flow, 

 some add the last super or two on top of 

 the others. At this time the conditions 

 are different. The brood in the upper 

 part of the brood combs is now being 

 replaced with sealed honey for winter 

 stores. The tendency now is to store 

 and finish the honey nearest the brood. 

 The bottom super is now separated from 

 the brood by sealed honey. It will not 

 be capped as white as the early honey, 

 but it will be finished up here better than 

 elsewhere. The last added super would 

 often better be added underneath the 

 brood chamber with no sections in it. 



The growing prevalence of foul brood 

 throughout the country, and the modern 

 improved methods of rendering combs 

 into wax, and of turning wax into foun- 

 dation and foundation into new combs, 

 are making it less and less an object to 

 save and use old dark brood combs. 



Boulder, Colo., Mar. 13. 1909. 



[Mr. Foster's article ought to have ap- 

 peared last month in order to have been 

 timely. It was in type, but I was sick, 

 and the "making up" of the Review had 

 to be entrusted to other hands, and this 

 article was left out for lack of room. 

 Perhaps I could have done no better had 

 1 been on deck — there is always more 

 matter on hand than can go in.— Editor.] 



