120 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



One thing I know, full sheets leave too much 

 wax in the honey for me. I know too, that 

 nice honey can be produced, and well 

 fastened to the sections, by using two 

 starters, one top and one bottom, a la Dr. 

 Miller, and as for quantity, I think just as 

 much, and I have produced tons of honey 

 both ways. 



When honey begins to come in I must 

 immediately remove those empty chambers 

 from under each hive, else the bees will at 

 once begin to fill them, and mostly with 

 drone comb too. Just about now, the bees 

 seem to have increased wonderfully in 

 numbers. The increased activity and 

 consequent heat, and need of elbow 

 room, together with the filling up of empty 

 cells, ^tfi to make a colony seem to be from 

 )4 to 1.2 stronger than it was two or three 

 days before, so instead of one super, from 

 two to four will be necessary to keep the 

 colony at work. 



Thus far we have succeeded in our plans, 

 got bees and had no swarming ; now we have 

 the bees at work. An apiary in such a condi- 

 tion will, especially if the honey flow comes 

 suddenly, prepare en mass for swarming ; 

 and within eight or ten days, eight out of ten 

 colonies would have swarmed, and fully '^)r^ 

 per cent of the whole would swarm. Just as 

 soon as the flow begins, while removing the 

 empty chambers from underneath. I also 

 hunt out each queen and take with her 

 enough bees and one comb of hatching bees 

 to make a nucleus colony. I then clip out 

 every queen cell that may be started in the 

 old colony. It won't do to 7niss one, even 

 if it is necessary to shake all the bees from 

 every comb. I put an empty comb in place of 

 the one taken with the queen ; or what is 

 better, if I have any weak colonies that will 

 not pay to run for honey, borrow a comb of 

 brood from them to fill the vacancy. If the 

 colony needs more super room, I add the 

 supers now. 



Each queen, and accompanying brood, 

 and bees, are put into a brood chamber, and 

 built up to a full colony, by adding empty 

 frames, full sheets of foundation or full 

 combs. By close spacing and using some 

 drone combs next to them, I can get very 

 nice combs in empty frames for starters. 

 These nucleus colonies build up quite 

 rapidly. The stimulus of the honey-flow, 

 the room ahead to be filled, keep the queen 

 and her few workers busy. 



At the dequeening of each colony — both 

 on the hive and in the book— I make a record 

 likethis,r>-20 x Q (June 20th, queen removed.) 

 Make the full entry in the book, but on the 

 hive it is only necessary to make it 20 x Q, 

 I won't forget the month, but might the 

 day. Now. so far" as swarming is concerned, 

 that colony is " fixed " for ten days. 



You say this is lots of work. Yes, but is it 

 more work than chasing swarms all the 

 while ? Suppose we had 300 colonies in three 

 apiaries, if they swarm, we must have a man 

 at each place, say ten days, and one man on 

 the road hauling out supplies. 



With an assistant, and a team, I can re- 

 move the queens from the 800 colonies, in 

 three apiaries, in six days time at most, do- 

 ing all other necessary work, such as adding 

 supers. Each trip out will take a load of 

 supers. 



The queens once out, I continue to look 

 after supers, ventilation, shading, etc. I 

 now have almost the whole force gathering 

 honey. Instead of having my stock divided 

 (except those nuclei, which do not per- 

 ceptibly lessen the working force of the old 

 colonies,) each old colony goes right into 

 "the honey business." If I have been re- 

 asonably succesful thus far, each colony will 

 occupy and work, 84 to 140 sections at one 

 time, even in a very moderate flow, and 

 what is better, they are filled more even and 

 straight, completed in less time, and, of 

 course, whiter. The heat of such colonies 

 aids much in ripening honey and wax work- 

 ing. 



If the flow is free, it wont be long until 

 some supers are ready to come ofif. As I go 

 about and look them over, those that are al- 

 most complete are raised to the top ; and if 

 more are needed, and the flow continues 

 free, I put the empty ones at the bottom, 

 but here we need to be very careful, and not 

 " stretch " too fast, lest we have a lot of un- 

 finished sections. Should the work go slow, 

 and yet there seems need of more room, I 

 put the empty supers on top. I watch close- 

 ly the honey-flow, so as to know whether to 

 " stretch " or " close down." 



On very strong colonies little harm is done 

 by adding a super at the top. If they need 

 them they will go up and use them. If not, 

 they will work the ones below. 



Each of those old colonies now has a lot 

 of queen cells built. In our next we will 

 tell you what to do with them. 



LovELAND, Colo. March 20, 1892, 



