GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



Under these conditions I have secured fully 

 as much, perhaps more, from strong colonies 

 swarmed before they contracted the swarming 

 fever than would have been the case without 

 swarming ; but the drawn comb formed a very 

 important part as to the results ; for a colony 

 that has not contracted the swarming fever is 

 not prepared to build comb, as is one that has. 

 This is a very interesting fact that any one 

 can verify by looking at a colony preparing to 

 swarm, and that has cells well under way. 

 The wax formation between the segments can 

 be seen on a large number of the bees, which 

 shows that they are expecting and preparing 

 to build a large amount of comb in the near 

 future. This wax secretion can be seen on a 

 large number of bees in any strong colony 

 during warm weather, whether they are pre- 

 paring to swarm or not, but to a much greater 

 extent in colonies that have preparations for 

 swarming well under way; and when a colony 

 which has not got its wax-works well under 

 way, if I may use such a term, is artificially 

 swarmed, they do less satisfactory section 

 work here than one that has ; and in quite a 

 per cent of the colonies I have swarmed be- 

 fore they had the swarming fever, the queens 

 sulked, or, for some reason, refused to lay 

 until considerable comb below was built and 

 filled with white honey, which should have 

 gone into the sections. Why a queen that 

 has just been laying profusely should, under 

 these conditions, in some cases, refuse to be- 

 gin work again in less time than one that has 

 slacked up laying in anticipation of swarm- 

 ing, is something I can not understand. It 

 would be natural to infer that it would be the 

 other way. And, again, I have in numerous 

 cases had the bees themselves sulk and refuse 

 to do much work for a number of days when 

 all the brood was taken away. 



Mr. S. does not seem to attach much im- 

 portance to the fact of his leaving a frame of 

 brood; but when I have artificially swarmed 

 colonies before they had made any prepara- 

 tion to swarm, I have secured much better re- 

 sults by leaving them permanently two frames 

 of brood, but after a colony has once con- 

 tracted the swarming fever, nothing can be 

 relied on to cure it, barring a sudden cessa- 

 tion of the flow, except the removal of all the 

 brood — that is, when the full force is kept to- 

 gether. 



THE USE AND ABUSE OF SHAI,LOW BROOD- 

 CHAMBERS IN THE PRODUCTION OF 

 COMB HONEY. 



I notice more experience is called for from 

 those who have used shallow brood-chambers 

 for comb honey. I commenced using these 

 a number of years ago, and have been gradu- 

 ally increasing their use since ; and, under 

 certain conditions, considerably more surplus 

 honey can be obtained with them than can be 

 from full depth ones; but it is done at the ex- 

 pense of increase and with less stores in the 

 brood-chambers. When increase is not desir- 

 ed, and in a locality like mine, where the con- 

 ditions are such that swarming does not natu- 

 rally occur, or has to be done before the main 

 flow commences, or is well under way, I con- 



sider their use very profitable; for, as editorial- 

 ly stated, a swarm hived in one of these shal- 

 low brood-chambers must of necessity store 

 most of the honey in the sections. My prac- 

 tice is to hive two swarms in each of these 

 shallow hives ; and the amount of section 

 work these allied forces will do in a good flow 

 is surprising; but during the hard work of the 

 main flow their strength rapidly decreases, 

 and there is not brood-chamber room enough 

 in one of these shallow hives to allow the 

 strength of a normal colony to be kept up. 

 After the main flow these colonies will, as 

 a rule, be practically without stores in the 

 brood-chamber, and weak in bees ; but the 

 pile of filled sections accounts for the hosts 

 that have vanished. 



One of the problems with me is to keep 

 down increase; and these shallow brood-cham- 

 bers solve the matter in a most satisfactory 

 manner, for the increase is, so to speak, turn- 

 ed into filled sections. Soon after the white 

 flow I unite enough of these shallow chambers 

 to make good strong colonies for the fall 

 flow, if there is any. By the use of zinc the 

 queen is, in those united, kept confined to the 

 lower story; so when the fall flow commences, 

 these upper stories can be removed and shaken 

 free from bees. These colonies are then in 

 excellent shape to do section work again 

 through the fall flow ; or I sometimes run 

 them for extracted honey in the fall. After 

 this last flow the bees in these hives are united 

 with the weakest colonies in frame hives. By 

 this means I am able to have all colonies in 

 frame hives strong in bees for winter. In 

 theory I do not intend to winter any colo- 

 nies in these shallow hives ; but if, on account 

 of sales or winter losses, it is desired to do so, 

 two sections are left together during the fall 

 flow, which they are allowed to fill up for win- 

 ter stores. As a rule there will be but a small 

 amount of honey in the removed sections. 

 What there is, is used for fall and spring feed- 

 ing, and the combs are removed and rendered 

 into wax. While the wax is no small item, 

 when a large number of these hives are used 

 on the plan I practice, the combs are not re- 

 moved for the profit there is in the wax itself, 

 for I have obtained much better results by 

 using these shallow hives empty, or without 

 combs or foundation to hive swarms in ; but I 

 have not space to explain why, for I wish to 

 point out that, under some conditions, the use 

 of these hives might not be as profitable as 

 would that of full depth. 



In localities where swarming naturally oc- 

 curs, or can be profitably done artificially some 

 time before the main flow commences, so that 

 at least part of the brood-chamber room could 

 be filled with comb and brood before the real 

 flow commenced, probably as much if not 

 more section work would be done by using 

 full-depth brood-chambers, for these would 

 allow the force of the colony to be kept up to 

 full strength, and still not allow any more 

 room for honey to be stored below than would 

 be the case with shallow chambers under con- 

 ditions such as they are in in my locality; or 

 if increase were desired at some expense of 

 surplus, I would not think of using these shal- 



