336 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



nest in the upper one, and spread it and man- 

 ipulate to get these combs solid full of brood. 

 The success does not depend on this getting 

 the one set of combs solid full of brood, 

 though to obtain best results it will pay to do 

 this. With this double brood-chamber there 

 is so much room you keep down the swarm- 

 ing fever, and I think the room to spread, es- 

 pecially downward, gives a greater vigor of 

 work than a crowded hive. 



Ten days before the flow begins, put your 

 queen in the lower chamber with a little brood 

 — one comb with any amount of brood will be 

 plenty ; an excluder on this, and the rest of 

 the brood on top. At the end of ten days, 

 when the flow is just starting, take to a new 

 stand the lower hive with the queen, and put 

 the top chamber on the old stand with noth- 

 ing but its sealed brood and no queen, but 

 give a virgin queen or ripe protected cell, or 

 wait two or three days and give a queen or 

 cell. Give only a cell or a virgin queen, be- 

 cause the brood is all sealed that is left on the 

 old stand ; and while the virgin is mating, 

 and getting ready to lay, the brood is hatch- 

 ing ; so when she does begin laying, the last 

 of the brood is about ready to emerge, and 

 your colony is just in the condition of a colo- 

 ny that has swarmed naturally, and their 

 young queen just ready to lay, except that 

 you have kept the strength of the colony 

 on the old stand, and have been getting sec- 

 tion work. As the brood hatched, the brood- 

 combs were filled with honey ; but as that 

 young queen begins to lay, that honey goes 

 up to the sections out of her way, and you 

 have no swarming either. 



This system anticipates quite a contracted 

 brood-chamber left on the old stand, which 

 would be the result with one section of a di- 

 visible-chamber hive, hence there would not 

 be any great amount of honey stored in it dur- 

 ing the time the queen was not laying. To 

 make the best test with the eight-frame hives 

 I suggest that you use but six to the body, 

 using a dummy at each side ; thus you have a 

 twelve-frame hive before the separation at the 

 start of the flow, and six left when divided. 



The whole plan contemplates a big hive up 

 till the flow, then a very small one on the old 

 stand, and yet all swarming effectually con- 

 trolled, the force of fielders right where they 

 will do the most good. The old queen never 

 stops laying, and goes right on and builds up 

 a good colony in her new location. 



This is no idle dream, and I ask that you 

 have it tried in your apiaries this season, to 

 be written up later after trial. I have for 

 years been studying the plan, and, to some 

 extent, experimenting. I think I am the pio- 

 neer in it, though another man, and a good 

 apiarist, in this State, has also used the prin- 

 ciple, coming at it independently of me. If 

 I have the success I anticipate for it, it will 

 be the system with divisible-brood-chamber 

 hives. 



Loveland, Col., Mar. 13, 



[Our readers will remember that about two 

 years ago I advocated a plan very similar to 

 this — that is, I practiced running two eight- 



frame brood-chambers for the purpose of get- 

 ting powerful colonies for the production of 

 comb honey; then when then the honey-flow 

 was fairly upon us I crowded this colony all 

 into one brood-chamber and one or two supers 

 containing sections and foundation. Some- 

 times I gave such colonies a shallow extract- 

 ing-super, and after the bees had got them 

 well started I took them off and substituted 

 the comb-honey supers. There were a few of 

 our readers who condemned the plan as im- 

 practicable and unorthodox ; but I know that 

 for some localities, and for some seasons at 

 least, it is all right. Mr. Aikin's plan is, per- 

 haps, an improvement on mine, and I wish a 

 good many of our readers might try it and 

 report at the end of the season. — Ed.] 



GLIMPSES OF CUBA AND CUBAN BEE-KEEPING. 



BY A. I.. BOYDEN. 



On the Monday following, I left Havana 

 with Mr. F. O. Somerford, who had just re- 

 turned from a brief visit to the States, to visit 

 the apiary of Mr. E M. Penfield, which is lo- 

 cated at San Nicholas, and managed by C. E. 

 Riggs. Mr. Riggs formerly devoted some 

 time to bee culture in Missouri, and is very 

 enthusiastic in regard to plain sections and 

 fences for the production of fancy comb hon- 

 ey. While they have been at work a compar- 



APIARY OF DR. TORIBIO DEL VltAR. 



atively short time, they have a very nice api- 

 ary, and have already secured a considerable 

 quantity of comb honey, which has later been 

 sent to the United States markets, so I am told. 

 The following morning I bade adieu to Mr. 

 Riggs at the station, and soon landed at 

 Guines, where, in company with Mr. F. O. 

 Somerford, who met me at this place, we call- 

 ed on Dr. Toribio del Villar, a physician who 

 is also interested in bee culture. Very soon 

 we were driving out to his apiary, situated 

 near the stone road leading to Havana. This 

 is, as will be seen from the picture below, com- 



