1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



645 



and put the other one half way between 

 the places where the others stood. Then 

 pick out the best frames of the two brood- 

 nests with the bees and put them into the 

 one. As a matter of precaution, don't mix 

 the combs of the two lots, but put one set 

 on one side and one set on the other side of 

 the brood-nest. Close the hive up. If there 

 is no difference, pay no attention to the 

 queens. If one queen is superior to the oth- 

 er, kill the inferior one and allow the other 

 to remain. It is not very difficult to intro- 

 duce a queen out of the same yard — in fact, 

 any fresh queen that has not had a long 

 journey through the mails. In most cases 

 the queen of one lot of bees will be accepted 

 by the bees of the other set of combs. 



But in a case where the two weak colonies 

 are separated, one in one portion of the yard 

 and the other in another, we would advise 

 moving the weaker of the two, which has 

 been made queenless, over to the stronger, 

 and, while doing so, blow a little smoke in- 

 to the entrance and jar the bees, giving them 

 a general jouncing before uniting the two 

 sets of combs into the one brood-nest. The 

 other colony, or the one to receive the oth- 

 ers, should be disturbed or smoked at the 

 entrance. This is done to get the bees to fill 

 up with honey. This work should be done 

 in the cool of the morning or the cool of the 

 evening, when no bees are flying; and don't 

 forget to jar the bees that are moved, and 

 make them queenless two or three days in 

 advance. 



In the case of hybrids or blacks it may be 

 necessary to use a little smoke after uniting, 

 to keep them from fighting. A better way 

 in the case of bad bees like Cyprians, in ad- 

 dition to smoking, is to sjirinkle both lots 

 with sweetened water. This will cause them 

 to lick each other off; and during the process 

 they will acquire the same scent. 



It sometimes happens that one will have 

 a lot of weak nuclei in the yard. It may 

 take a dozen of them to make one good col- 

 ony. We would advise shaking the bees 

 of these, if queenless, all into a wire-cloth 

 box until you have something like five or 

 six quarts of bees. Give them a general 

 jouncing; then in the cool of the morning, 

 or, better, in the cool of the evening, take 

 up a dipperful of bees and dump them in 

 front of the entrance of any colonies that 

 may need a little strengthening. If one col- 

 ony requires two dipperfuls, give it the 

 amount required, and so on scatter the bees 

 among the hives that can stand or need a 

 few more bees. There will be no trouble, if 

 in the cool of the morning or evening, about 

 these bees uniting or about their attacking 

 the queen. 



Do not make the mistake of trying to 

 unite when the bees are flying. After they 

 once get out in the air, when they find their 

 hive gone, they will, of course, go back to 

 the old stand. Remember to do all the unit- 

 ing in a cool atmosphere. Very few bees 

 will return to the old stand, if, during the 

 move from the old stand to the new, the 

 hive is pretty well bumped around. Right 



here score a point in favor of Hoffman frames 

 or any good self-spacing frames. 



If one does not have Hoffman frames, let 

 him shake the bees off in front of the en- 

 trance of the other hive — that is, the hive 

 that is to receive the two lots of bees, and 

 allow them to run in. The point is, that, 

 in order to make bees stay in the new loca- 

 tion, they should be "shook up " or disturb- 

 ed. Right here the principle of "shook" 

 swarming, that has been advocated so much 

 of late, comes in, for shook swarming is 

 nothing more nor less than natural swarm- 

 ing induced artificially. 



For some of these tricks of the trade we 

 are indebted to our apiarist, Mr. J. W. Bain. 

 In this connection Mr. Bain says there is no 

 use in trying to unite old bees, as they prob- 

 ably won't stay. Moreover, he says they 

 would be of no use to any colony, as they 

 would only be consumers, and would die off 

 long before spring. This dovetails very nice- 

 ly with the teachings of the late Henry Al- 

 ley. 



PREVENTING THE BEES FROM RETURNING 



TO THE OLD STAND WHEN COLONIES 



ARE MOVED SHORT DISTANCES IN 



THE SAME YARD. 



In the fall of the year it is sometimes ad- 

 visable to change the position of some of 

 the hives, which, from the experience of the 

 winter before, are found to be too much ex- 

 posed to the wind; or, occasionally, the 

 owner wishes to move the hives close to- 

 gether for the jiurpose of packing under a 

 temporary shed, etc. There is often con- 

 siderable loss when this is done, owing to 

 the fact that the bees return in large num- 

 bers to the old stand ; and, even though 

 there be no hive there, they collect in 

 bunches, and finally perish or wander all 

 around, only to get lost. This loss may be 

 partially prevented, if not wholly; but" the 

 moving must be done in the right way. 



Very early in the morning of a warm fall 

 day. before the bees have started to fly, is 

 an ideal time for this work. Simply give 

 the bees of the colony that is to be moved a 

 good smoking at the entrance to keep them 

 in while the hive is being carried, and then 

 move the hive to its new position. When 

 all are moved, and just before the bees 

 would ordinarily start flying, blow in con- 

 siderable smoke at the entrance of each 

 hive moved, and pound vigorously on the 

 sides with a stick. This will cause the bees 

 to fill up; and when they come out to fly 

 they will mark their location so that few re- 

 turn to the place previously occupied. 



If there are too many to move before the 

 bees would be flying in the morning, some 

 may be moved the night before; but all 

 moved colonies must be vigorously smoked 

 and roughly handled by means of pound- 

 ing, etc., just before they go out to fly. It 

 is much better to do all the moving sit one 

 time, however. We recently shifted about 

 twenty colonies in chaff hives to a new lo- 

 cation in the same yard, and, by following 

 this plan, had no loss. 



