426 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1, 



producing of honey by colonies that are part of 

 the time queenless, is concerned, I have had as 

 good success as could be expected in seasons 

 that were in the main poor. The finding of 

 queens, and infallible destruction of queen-cells 

 in the queenless colonies, have never offered 

 any serious difficulties to me, and will be mi- 

 nutely described in the future. The most seri- 

 ous part of the method consisted in the re-in- 

 troduction of the queens. How I lost hundreds 

 of valuable queens, and how I finally overcame 

 difficulties, I will also defer to some future arti- 

 cle. I will give to-day a method of non swarm- 

 ing, or, rather, forced swarming, which I prac- 

 ticed last summer, and which gave me better 

 satisfaction than the Elwood method. 



I have a large number of half-depth supers, 

 designed for taking extracted honey, containing 

 10 frames 6 inches deep and 18 inches long. 

 These have close-fitting end-bars, and stand on 

 tin strips after the manner of the frames in 

 Heddon's new hive. It is, however, not essen- 

 tial whether the frames are in that shape or 

 not. A hanging frame will do as well. Indeed, 

 the half-depth extracting supers you offer in 

 your catalog may do very well, though I think 

 they are shallower than my frames. Hanging 

 frames should have the Hoffman end -bars, so 

 that no time may be lost in spacing them. 



Of the 10 frames, I provided 8 with half-inch 

 foundation starters, and the two outside frames 

 I converted into dummies by nailing thin wood 

 over the sides. This 1 did because I considered 

 8 frames of 6-inch depth ample comb space for 

 the purpose. By providing cheap loose bottom- 

 boards and covers, these supers were converted 

 into shallow brood-chambers to hive the forced 

 swarms in. 



When the proper time came, and the brood- 

 chambers of my colonies were overrunning full 

 of bees, I proceeded to make what in German 

 bee- parlance is called "sweep-swarms" (Feg- 

 schwiirme). My method of doing this is thus: 

 I lift the colony from its stand and place it a 

 little to one side. One of the shallow swarm- 

 ing-hives is placed on the old stand, and a good- 

 sized piece of muslin spread in front of it. The 

 old colony is then opened, frame by frame taken 

 out, and the bees brushed with Coggshall bee- 

 brushes on to the cloth. Shaking off at this 

 time would not do, as there was too much honey 

 in the combs that would shake out and drench 

 the bees. If there are many colonies sv/ept, it 

 will be well to have two sweepers— one for each 

 side of the comb. My 9-year-old boy helped 

 me last year. If there is not much thin honey 

 in the combs, most of the bees may be shaken 

 off. We never looked for the queen, as we 

 swept every bee from the combs, and then shook 

 and brushed all the rest out of the hive. We 

 never missed a queen. There should be an ex- 

 tra brood-chamber or box on hand to put the 

 cleaned combs in, as it will not do to put them 



back into the same hive before all the combs 

 are swept and the rest of the bees shaken out. 

 We did not leave any bees to nurse the brood, 

 for, even if some of the youngest larvee should 

 perish, the loss is not serious, as they would not 

 develop in time to help gather that crop any 

 way, and the sealed brood does not suffer. Of 

 course, if there is danger of the weather turn- 

 ing cold this would not do; but when I did 

 this last year, during the end of May and the 

 first days of June, the heat ranged between 95 

 and 100 degrees in the shade. 



After all the bees were swept out, the en- 

 trance of the old colony was turned backward, 

 and the hive set a little backward and to one 

 side of the swarm, to be gradually turned 

 around again, a little every day, until side by 

 side with the swarm. The bees entered the 

 swarming-hive just like a swarm — were shaded 

 with shade-boards, and in from 24 to SCj hours 

 would have small pieces of comb started in 

 some of the frames, and, generally, eggs in the 

 cells. As quick as this was noted, on went the 

 queen -excluding honey-board, and a case of 

 sections filled with foundation, and one or more 

 bait-combs were put on. The bees, having but 

 little comb in the hive, would go into the sec- 

 tions with a vim, and put nearly all the honey 

 they made into the sections. Where the old 

 colony had been working in the sections before 

 the operation was performed, we shook the 

 bees out of the section-case and returned the 

 sections to the mother colony until the swarm 

 had started its combs and the queens had be- 

 gun to lay, when they would be placed on the 

 swarm. Where no queen-excluding honey- 

 boards are used this is the only way to proceed, 

 as the queen would surely occupy the sections 

 if the cases were put on at the time of hiving. 

 In a number of cases, however, I placed the 

 sections, bees and all, directly above a queen- 

 excluding honey-board on to shallow swarming- 

 hive before the bees were swept off, and all 

 went well. In no case was there any swarm- 

 ing-out. 



These operations were performed in my out- 

 yard of 54 colonies, located in the country, 4 

 miles from my home yard. I was somewhat 

 hampered by several colonies swarming while 

 I was busy at home, not thinking that any 

 were ready to swarm. As the queens were all 

 clipped, some of the swarms went into other 

 hives, making immense colonies. To those I 

 gave two of the shallow hives when 1 swept 

 them off. As soon as they had settled down to 

 business, and were working in the sections, I 

 took away one of the hives and confined them 

 to one, giving them plenty of section room. 

 These double swarms made, of course, about as 

 much again honey as the others. 



After the close of the white-honey season I 

 removed the sections and confined the swarms 

 for a while to the shallow hive alone; and, al- 



