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A N 1 NMi S T N 15 10 K C V hT V 



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and after the extracting supeis have ]ieen 

 taken off, the entire front of the hive ami 

 space between brood combs and bottom 

 of hive is often filled with bees. These 

 colonies I have split up the first week of 

 September, dividing the bees, combs, honey, 

 and brood down the center of the hive, and 

 next season these have given me 100 pounds 

 or more of white surplus honey. Since first 

 writing on- this subject there has been added 

 another severe winter 's experience, and I 

 liave no reason to change my views. 



The advantage I have over Mr. Greiner's 

 method is tiiat I have two queens producing 

 brood all thru the sjoring where he has only 

 one. I first looked at this proposition with 

 much misgiving and trembling, but some 

 years ago took the plunge and found the 

 water not a bit cold and the swimming ex- 

 cellent. After I got in, I found several either 

 boys had quietly been enjoying the same 

 swimming place — no doubt feeling they had 

 a good place. 



Eight in that article, Mr. Greiner stated: 

 "Those colonies that fill five spaces or more 

 on a cool morning, when closely clustered, 

 are considered safe for wintering." Why! 

 those I split up in early September covered 

 eight frames and built comb outside of that 

 when they were fed for winter, to which 

 fact I have two student witnesses. Fur- 

 thermore, running short of material when 

 making them, I gave only five combs ami 

 no division-board to one colony in a 12- 

 frame hive, and they Avintered well last 

 vrinter. Remember, I am not advocating 

 sjilitting of swarmed colonies or swarm colo- 

 nies or even one which has never had spunk 

 enough to swarm under the treatment that 

 a colony generally gets; but splitting up 

 powerful colonies with jdenty of brood in 

 the brood-chamber. 



Another Beekeeper's Method. 

 At the WatertoAvn convention LeRoy C. 

 Keath of Black River, N. Y., gave an ad- 

 dress upon the subject of making increase 

 late in the season, or raither making in- 

 crease after the honey flow had stopped. It 

 now appears that quite a number of bee- 

 keepers had been making such increase in a 

 quiet way and "keeping it under their 

 hats. ' ' 



Mr. Keath 's method has the advantage of 

 providing a queen earlier in the season, and 

 not entailing the risk of opening and di- 

 viding colonies during robbing tiiue. The 

 plan also permits the beekeeper to know 

 there is a queen present. As to robbing, 

 any good beekeeper should be able to go 

 into an apiary and split up 10 or 15 colonies 

 before the bees begin to get busy. Another 

 advantage witli Mr. Keath 's method is that 

 the bees do not require to be moved from 

 one apiary or distant location to anotiier, 

 thus making it suitable for a person with 

 only one location. 



Mr. Keath during swarming time makes 

 up one-frame nuclei, getting as many of 

 these on hand as he wishes to make increase. 

 The nuclei are made from (-(donies having 



tlie swarming impulse, this giving him 

 queen-cells leared under the swarming im- 

 pulse, and taking from the colony wishing 

 to swarm the needed brood and stores. 

 Probably Mr. Keath would not object to giv- 

 ing the bees a comb of honey as well as the 

 brood, thus making them safe for stores. 

 He mentioned that the one-frame nucleus 

 ought to be watched for stores. 



When he gets ready for extracting by 

 })i]tting bee-escapes under the supers to be 

 extracted, he puts the bee-escai)e board on 

 the nucleus which is to be built up, and on 

 this he puts three of these extracting-supers 

 from three different hives — not three su- 

 pers from one hive. He has an object in 

 taking the supers from three different hives, 

 and that object is to mix the bees so thoro- 

 ly that they will not kill the queen belong- 

 ing to the nucleus below. 



Six or seven combs from which the honey 

 has just been extracted are given to the 

 nucleus, and in that way the bees get the 

 necessary comb room. 



Mr. Keath stated that he had done this 

 for three years. The first year 39 were made 

 in the above way, and" only one was lost dur- 

 ing the winter. The next year 40 were 

 made and all wintered well; and in the fall 

 of 1917 there were 25 such placed in win- 

 ter quarters. 



I would warn beginners to be careful 

 about putting the wet extracted combs into 

 a weak nucleus during robbing time. It 

 seems to me it would be better to put these 

 wet combs into the hive after the bees 

 have gone into the brood-chamber. 



Of course, only strong stocks can be di- 

 vided, those that would answer the purpose 

 best being such as would have a good-sized 

 bunch of bees outside of the entrance after 

 the supers have been removed. 



These methods of securing increase are a 

 revolution in getting more colonies and ai e 

 secured without the sacrifice of a pound of 

 white honey. However, winter feed has to 

 be supplied for the increase unless there 

 is a fall flow; and, if that is the case, then 

 it will likely decrease the amount of sur- 

 plus fall honey from such sources as buck- 

 wheat, goldenrod, boneset, and asjter. 



It might be of interest to give my experi- 

 ence with some 70 colonies split up about 

 Sept. 1 last year. By that splitting-up I 

 had 140 such colonies, weakened in numbers. 

 They wintered just as well as the rest of the 

 bees. I could distinguish them by the di- 

 vision-board in them and by the fact that 

 the hives ditl not contain 12 combs as did 

 the others. In fact, on Apr. 29 I came 

 across one which had been given only five 

 combs in Se])teinber. Therefore it is likely 

 that at that time there was less than five 

 combs of bees; and this nucleus, or colony 

 (if you will honor it with that name) win- 

 tered in fine shape, and tiiat, too, during a 

 very trying winter. 



[The reader should take good note of Mr. 

 Holtermann 's comment that only strong 

 colonies are thus to be divided. — Editor. | 



