American Hee Journal 



August, igii. 



use of larvae for this purpose when 

 thrown into an abnormal condition. 



While I have had little experience in 

 queen-rearing, yet I have often won- 

 dered why eggs were not used instead 

 of larvs, as to my unpractised eye the 

 egg seems almost as plain in the cell 

 as a freshly-hatched larva. In justice 

 to the common practise, I will have to 

 confess that in August, 1910, for the 

 first and only tiriie I grafted a few cells 



and reared half a dozen queens, and 

 this summer one of those queens had 

 by all odds the best colony in the home 

 apiary. It is only fair to say that this 

 queen was reared from the colony that 

 had given best results for two years in 

 succession; and then who knows but 

 what, if the queen had been reared 

 from an egg instead of a young larva, 

 she might have given better results 

 than she did ? 



Southern 



Beedom^ 



Conducted by Louis H. Scholl, New Braunfels. Tex. 



Making Rapid Increase of Colonies 



There are various ways of making 

 increase, and the bee-keeper must se- 

 lect that method which best suits him, 

 the locality, and his circumstances. 

 Then there are various times in which 

 such increase can be made most profit- 

 ably, and this nmst be studied out by 

 each individual to suit his particular 

 case. 



We have found during our many 

 years of manipulations, and after try- 

 ing many ways of making increase, 

 that for us, at least, there are ways of 

 increasing one's number of colonies 

 from year to year without interfering 

 materially with the honey crops; that 

 is to say, we can increase our colonies 

 in such a way that we will have both 

 increase and a crop of honey at the 

 same time. To do this we have prac- 

 ticed about as the following outline of 

 a season's work in this respect will 

 show : 



In the late fall of the year, or during 

 the winter months when there is no 

 other crowding work, we spend most 

 of our time in fixing up our apiaries, 

 cleaning up the yards, straightening 

 and leveling up the hives, and all such 

 work necessary to put the apiaries in 

 tip-top shape for the following year's 

 work. Sometimes this work is delayed 

 for some reason until early spring, but 

 it is generally gotten out of the way 

 before the busy season begins. 



During this time, however, we plan 

 to leave only 40 colonies in each one 

 of the apiaries, although we have 50 in 

 each yard during the honey season. 



All colonies above 40 in number are 

 moved to other places and new yards 

 started with them, again placing 40 in 

 each of the new yards as far as this is 

 possible. For instance, if there are (34 

 in one yard, 24 are taken to another 

 place, if 53, then 13 are taken aw,ay, 

 and added to as many others from 

 other places to make 40 for a new yard. 

 These colonies are always moved to 

 the nearest new yard to prevent long 

 moving, thus making the establishment 

 of new yards so much easier. 



Having all our yards with 40 colonies 

 each, we plan to make an increase of a 

 dozen at each yard during tlie spring 

 before the time for the honey-flow 

 comes. Allowing the 2 out of a 40-coI- 

 ony apiary may be dead, or too weak 

 so that they must be doubled up with 

 other colonies, it is necessary to make 

 a dozen more to make the proper num- 

 ber of 50 colonies in each yard. Of 

 course, sometimes none are missing, 

 and often one or 2 more than usual, 

 and thus the yards vifill vary, sometimes, 

 around the 50 mark. But we figure 

 that we will use a dozen new queens 

 for each apiary for the spring increase, 

 and so many dozen for as many yards 

 as we have. 



Just what method of making increase 

 is used depends, in all cases, upon the 

 condition of the bees and the weather, 

 and is best learned by the bee-keeper. 

 However, in the early spring rir use 

 almost the same method as at all other 

 times, there being two ways of proced- 

 ure. In the one we resort to the 

 strongest colonies in the yard for our 

 increase, in the following way: 



If the weather conditions are right, 

 and honey and pollen are coming in,, 

 brood-rearing is going on nicely, and 

 the colonies have become very strong 

 in bees and brood, we have many that 

 have spread their brood throughout 3- 

 of the shallow stories of our divisble 

 brood-chamber hives. About a week 

 before we intend to make the increase 

 we place a queen-excluder between the 

 story that we want for our increase- 

 and the rest of the hive, be the former 

 above or below This is done in such 

 a way, by smoking the most of the bees- 

 out of the story wanted, as to run out 

 the most of the bees and the queen (it 

 she should happen to be in this one),, 

 and this not only gives us a queenless 

 story with combs of bees and brood,, 

 but prevents the queen from laying in. 

 it long enough so that there will be no 

 eggs and very small larvse that would 

 be destroyed when the division is made. 

 Besides, it saves hunting for queens; 

 and knowing that each of these shallow 

 stories is queenless, we can at once 

 give the new queens without having to- 

 fear any mistake or oversight, and a 

 consequent loss of some of the new 

 queens introduced to the newly-made 

 colonies. 



Having the queens a week later, we 

 remove each story thus excluded from; 

 the rest of the hive, with all its con- 

 tents and all the bees that may be in it,, 

 to a new place vifhere a bottom-board 

 has already been prepared on its stand,, 

 and a cover is within easy reach. A 

 queen is given at once, the cover placed 

 on, and then the entrance is chucked 

 full of green weeds or grass so that 

 not a single bee can escape and return 

 to the old stand. They are thus left 

 alone until we return some weeks later 

 to find the bees have gnawed away an 

 entrance through the weeds, which are 

 now dried down and may be removed 

 entirely if the colony is strong enough,, 

 or these may be left until later, thus 

 acting as a partial obstruction and en- 

 trance-closer against robber-bees. The 

 bees will remove them gradually, any- 

 way, if not needed, and hence do not 

 need the attention of the bee-keeper at 

 all in the first place unless he cares to- 

 look after it. All the queens should be 

 found laying also, and the little hives- 

 beginning to be crowded for room. 

 This is easily and quickly supplied by 

 removing every cover from a group of 

 5 hives of these new colonies, and set- 

 ting on each another shallow story 

 containing extracting combs with some 



Fig. I.— a Group of Five Newly-Made Colonies of Increase. 



Fig. 2.— Scholl's Ideal Method of Making Increase. 



