June, 1911. 



American l^ee Journal 



that an occasional blunder on our side 

 -would not crop out at once. But should 

 we continue rearing queens by trans- 

 ferring larvae for years and years, rear- 

 ing generation after generation in this 

 fashion, we might come to grief — our 

 stock of bees might deteriorate. 



When a colony loses its queen and 

 there is young brood in the hive, the 

 bees at once set about it to rear a new 

 <jueen from it. Such reared queen is 

 no better than one we may induce the 

 bees to rear from a transferred larva, 

 and we may thus excuse our transfer 

 method; but such a thing is an excep- 

 tion. It may not occur once in 25 

 years in a hive. In order that we may 

 be sure that no deterioration can take 

 place, the young queen ought to be 

 treated like a princess from the very 

 beginning. 



We will come the nearest to Nature 

 by supplying only eggs from which to 

 rear the queens. We are not absolutely 

 sure then, but it is the best we can do, 

 as we can not influence the queen to 

 lay eggs in artificially-prepared queen- 

 cells. Mr. H. L. Case, in 1909, made 

 known to us a plan by which it is a 

 simple matter to have a great many 

 queen-cells built out from eggs. His 

 plan was, first to insert a nice comb in 

 the breeding colony. After 3 days, or 

 before any larvs have broken the 

 shells, remove the comb, which is by 

 that time full of eggs, and make incis- 

 ions with the row of cells down to the 

 midrib on one side of the comb only, 

 but clear across. With a narrow chisel 

 remove every other strip or row of 

 cells. Now destroy every other cell in 

 the rows left intact, and give the comb 

 flatwise propped up over the brood- 

 chamber, to a queenless and broodless 

 colony. Mr. Case has had 7.5 fine cells 

 built out in this fashion on one comb. 

 Dr. Phillips advocated a similar plan at 

 the State bee-keepers' meeting in Ge- 

 neva, Dec. 12, 1910. 



With such an amount of cells as the 

 product of one colony, it is an easy 

 matter to renew the queens in a lot of 

 colonies. The only trouble would be 

 to catch the old queens. Our foul- 

 brood inspectors employ a sieve; 

 others have done so. With black colo- 

 nies in the fall of the year this is the 

 <|uickest way. Then, after the colonies 

 have been queenless for a day or two, 

 the ripe cells are given, one or two to 

 each. 



Just before the buckwheat honey 

 season closes is also a good time to re- 

 new queens without making a sacrifice. 

 Many authorities would have us think 

 that it does pay to renew queens in 

 this fashion early in the spring or dur- 

 ing fruit-bloom. This may be so, but 

 if there are any queens not e.xtra-pro- 

 lific in the yard, it will surely pay with 

 them. In fact, I have noticed that while 

 there occurs a loss, no eggs being laid 

 for about 12 days when a queen is re- 

 moved and a ripe cell substituted, yet 

 when that young queen commences to 

 lay, she usually soon makes up that 

 loss, even when the young queen was 

 still doing a good business. A young 

 queen, thus reared, is also not apt to 

 lead out a swarm that season — from the 

 standpoint of the comb-honey producer, 

 certainly no small advantage. 



Naples, N. Y. 



Giving Natural Swarms Part 

 Empty Combs 



BY C. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes that he is a 

 subscriber to the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, and wishes me to tell through its 

 columns how it would answer to hive 

 his swarms as they come, in hives hav- 

 ing 4 frames of empty comb and 6 

 frames having a starter of worker- 

 comb in them, enough so the bees will 

 build their combs true in the frames. 

 He says he has empty combs enough 

 so that he can furnish each new swarm 

 with only -1 combs, and that the bees 

 must build the rest of those needed 

 themselves, as he does not f«el able to 

 buy comb foundation to fill the frames 

 that do not have comb in them. 



First, allow me to say that I believe 

 there are times when it can be made to 

 pay very largely to fill the frames with 

 worker-comb foundation; and at other 

 times I am sure that the bees can build 

 combs at a profit above buying the 

 foundation. And if he must hive his 

 swarms as he proposes, that is just the 

 time it will pay any one to fill the empty 

 frames with foundation. The only time 

 when it will pay to hive swarms upon 

 frames having only starters in them is, 

 when honey is coming in slowly, or 

 with small swarms; if the whole of the 

 frames a hive contains are given the 

 swarm at time of hiving. In either of 

 these conditions the bees will fill the 

 frames mostly with worker-comb. But 

 with large swarms and a heavy yield of 

 honey, the combs which are built 

 would be quite a share of them drone- 

 comb, which would be to the detriment 

 of a good yield of honey ever after- 

 ward, unless the bee-keeper went 

 through the labor and trouble of cut- 

 ting out this drone-comb and fitting 

 worker-comb in its place. However, 

 if the sections are filled with empty 

 comb, or with thin comb foundation, 

 and the hive contracted with dummies 

 so that there are only 5 or frames in 

 the brood-chamber, then even a large 

 swarm with a good flow of honey, will 

 build mostly worker-comb, as, in this 

 case, there will be ample room in the 

 sections for the storing of the nectar, 

 while the bees build the worker-size of 

 cells for the eggs of the queen. 



"But what is there against working 

 on the plan as given by the corres- 

 pondent ?" I think I hear some one 

 ask. As I consider it, there are three 

 things against it: The first of which 

 is, that the bees would be likely to fill 

 these combs with honey almost imme- 

 diately, if the swarm was large and the 

 flow of nectar good, thus giving 1 

 combs solid with honey, instead of 

 having that much in the sections, thus 

 thwarting the purpose of contracting 

 hives, as has been just mentioned, 

 which is, to secure the first and best 

 quality of honey in the sections, and 

 also to entice the bees to work in the 

 sections before they commence to store 

 in the brood-chamber to any extent. 

 These empty combs can never take the 

 place of dummies. With the dummies, 

 there is no place to store anything in 

 the brood-chamber until comb is built, 

 and as the combs or foundation which 

 will soon be drawn out in the sections 

 will give empty cells before there are 



any in the brood-nest, this first honey 

 goes into the sections, and by the time 

 cells are built in the frames the queen 

 has regained her fertility, so that these 

 brood-frames are all filled with worker- 

 cells and brood, just as we wish them. 



Then, again, the correspondent's 

 plan would be rather a method of ex- 

 pansion, for the bees would have to 

 spread out over these combs, if they 

 were placed at each side of the hive to 

 keep things properly warm, so few bees 

 would enter the sections, while the 

 dummies simply take up space, the bees 

 not having any desire to hang around 

 the outside of them. Then, if the sea- 

 son was good for two weeks or so, and 

 the swarm did not dwindle in numbers 

 too rapidly, the bees crowding the 

 queen down to little room for brood, 

 would cause swarming, as often hap- 

 pens in this locality, just at a time when 

 the best work is generally being done 

 in the sections. Of course, these 

 swarms could be returned and the 

 queen-cells cut off, but this makes a lot 

 of e.xtra work, and generally a mixing 

 of swarms, which is a nuisance to any 

 apiarist. Then, as a rule, such colonies 

 are more persistent in continued 

 swarming to the end of the flow, than 

 is an old colony; and this persistency 

 always destroys the prospect of a good 

 yield of section honey. T have often 

 had swarms go to work with a will un- 

 der similar circumstances, working till 

 the sections were about two-thirds 

 completed, and then, just as I was prid- 

 ing myself on having a large lot of 

 beautiful honey from such a swarm, 

 out they would come, and be so persis- 

 tent in swarming that few of the sec- 

 tions would be completed, while what 

 were, were so travel-stained and so un- 

 evenly capped that their selling price 

 was very much injured. 



But the worst feature of all, when 

 giving a colony part empty combs and 

 part empty frames, lies in the persis- 

 tency of these swarms building drone- 

 comb in the empty frames. The zv/iy 

 of this is hard to understand; but an 

 experience covering more than 40 

 years has proven to me that bees can 

 not be depended upon to build any 

 worker-comb during the first week 

 after being hived, where one-fourth or 

 such a matter of the hive contains 

 empty comb, and the swarm is one 

 having a laying queen. With a large 

 swarm having a virgin queen the case 

 is different, such as a swarm coming 

 from a colony which has lost its old 

 mother at about the swarming season, 

 or with very large second swarms. It 

 takes from 3 to 6 days for such a queen 

 to become fertile and commence to lay, 

 after the swarm is hived, and during 

 this time the bees have filled the empty 

 combs given with honey, so that new 

 comb must be built at a time when this 

 young and vigorous queen demands 

 only worker-cells, as she has no such 

 desire to lay in drone-comb as has a 

 queen a year or more old. Then, when 

 such a queen begins to lay, she crowds 

 the cells with eggs as fast as built, thus 

 keeping the bees building worker- 

 combs to an extent greater than is 

 usually the case. 



But, as it is a rare thing that many 

 swarms issue as the first one of the 

 season with a virgin queen, and as 

 scarcely a person in this 20th century 



