THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



139 



It is then removed to permit the young- 

 queen to mate. 



One or two remarks can be made here. 

 The old queen could be removed instead 

 of caged; but as far as I can see, the bees 

 work better with a queen, caged or not, 

 than without. On the other hand, the 

 colony does decidedly better work with a 

 young queen than with the old one; that 

 is, as a general rule. 



Evidently a queen from some other col- 

 ony can be introduced in the place of one 

 of their own rearing, but in such cases, 

 care must be taken to not introduce her 

 too soon. The colony must be four or five 

 days without unsealed brood, before a 

 queen is released or introduced, otherwise 

 swarming would occur again. 



SUPERS. 



My hives and supers are home-made. 

 The majority of them are 17's inches 

 long inside, giving room in the supers for 

 just four sections in each row. Instead 

 of section holders, I use plain strips of 

 wood 1 }4 inch wide; the sections are 

 plain sections of the same width: strips 

 are also placed on the sections and the 

 posts of the fences are long enough to 

 leach clear through both strips. This 

 arrangement permits a very rapid filling 

 or emptying of the supers. Furthermore, 

 it reduces cleaning to a minimum, as the 

 sections are protected on all the sides. 

 Only the edges need cleaning, and, usually 

 one or two sweeps of a joiner's scraper 

 on each side is all that is needed. 



DOUBLE-WALLED HIVES. 



I use, exclusively, double-walled hives. 

 Not only the hive proper, but the supers 

 and covers as well. They are not much 

 heavier than single-walled hives. The 

 lumber used is only >2 inch thick. The 

 space between walls is 1 '-^ or 2 inches 

 wide, and filled with light packing, ex- 

 celsior or straw being the best. The 

 stiffness of a double-walled hive is se- 

 cured by the strips at the top and bot- 

 tom of the walls, hence the possibility of 

 using thin lumber. 



These hives have many advantages. In 



my locality the bees winter better than 

 in single-walled hives. The protection to 

 the brood in the early spring is invaluable. 

 What is almost as valuable is the pro- 

 tection to the first super put on in the 

 early spring, which, in many localities, 

 must be done at a time when the weather 

 is yet quite cool. 



That is not all. When the hot weather 

 comes, the double walls and covers with 

 packing protect from an excess of heat as 

 well as the excess of cold. The heat of 

 the sun cannot penetrate readily through 

 such walls, and accumulates in the pack- 

 ing, which, in turn, helps to keep the hive 

 warm during the night. This is a much 

 more important item than most people 

 would think. Go to your hives before 

 daylight, after a cool night, and you will 

 often find the supers entirely deserted. 

 That means a considerable loss of sur- 

 plus. Under favorable circumstances, 

 the comb building and other work will go 

 on during the night as well as during the 

 day, and if it does not, there will certainly 

 be a loss. 



Another advantage of having full sized 

 brood nests is that there is room enough 

 for all the food needed, and all the room 

 for egg laying, until the bees can gather 

 enough to supply their wants. It does 

 not take much honey merely to feed the 

 bees during the winter; it is the rearing 

 of brood in the early spring that consumes 

 the stores so fast. An eight- or ten-frame 

 L. size hive has not room enough for both 

 purposes. The result is that it is neces- 

 sary to feed in the spring if room enough 

 is left in the fall f :r breeding purposes. I 

 say use full size brood nests and cut out 

 the spring feeding. 



THE WHY AND WHEREFORE- 



But somebody will say: If a large brood 

 nest has so many advantages over one 

 made of two bodies, why is it that they 

 are so little used ? 



While they are so little used here they 

 are used extensively in Europe. There 

 the full sized Dadant hive is considered 

 among the smallest that can be tolerated. 



