78 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



home if your total crop is greater than from the 75, 

 even if the average yield per colony from the 100 be 

 less than from the 7-">. In other words, it is well lo 

 crowd the bees at home a little, rather than to start 

 a second apiary. Whether you need to keep some 

 one watching- for swarms, cuts some figure in the 

 account. There may be cases, however, where the 

 extra ~"> would turn the balance in favor of an out- 

 apiary. If it is your intention to continue to in- 

 crease, and you have reached, or nearly reached 

 the limit of the home apiary, and you expect to 

 start an out-apiary next year, it may be better to 

 start it this year. The practice this year on a small- 

 er number will be of advantage to you. In the 

 matter of hauling alone, you need experience— at 

 least I did. Mishaps were quite too common with 

 me at first; :ind if I had had a large number to haul, 

 the matter might have been serious. Another rea- 

 son for commencing this year, rather than next, is, 

 that you have no certain tenure of territory; but if 

 you commence an out-apiary this year you may be 

 less likely to see some one else occupy the same 

 ground next year. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



Another thing that you can determine by 

 starting out-apiaries is the value of locali- 

 ties. Some find the out - apiary better 

 than the home apiary, and others not near- 

 ly so good ; and I remember that, in some 

 cases, there seemed to be a marked differ- 

 ence, without any explanation as to why it 

 was so. This marked difference showed it- 

 self year after year. By trying 2o colonies 

 at a time, or even a less number, you can 

 decide what a locality is worth. If it is not 

 as good as your home apiary, you can make 

 a test in another direction. Sometimes an 

 out-apiary will give stores when the bees at 

 home are getting none at all. This is often 

 the case where you can go in the direction 

 of a swamp, river bottom, or something of 

 that sort. 



INCREASE, OTHERWISE THAN BY 

 NATURAL SWARMING. 



FRIEND DOOLITTLE TELLS US HOW TO MANAGE IT. 



"Mb SUBSCRIBER for Gleanings says he can 

 9flk not stay at home and care for the swarms 

 ^Jk which may issue from the 30 colonies of bees 

 -^*- which he has, and wishes me to tell him how 

 he can manage next season so as to increase 

 his bees and still have them do good work in mak- 

 ing comb honey. After trying nearly every plan of 

 artificial increase which has ever been given, I am 

 satisfied that none of them will give as good results 

 as will natural swarming; but where one is situat- 

 ed as is the writer of the above, of course a sub- 

 stitute for the good old way will have to be resort- 

 ed to. Knowing that there were times when in- 

 crease other than natural swarming would be very 

 desirable, I kept a record of all of my experiments 

 while trying the various plans of making swarms, 

 as given at different times to the public, and, ac- 

 cording to my views, the two following come the 

 nearest to nature's way of any now before the 

 world. The first is a plan which was adopted by 

 Rlisha Gallup, and given to the world some twenty 

 or more years ago, while the latter plan is one 1 

 made up out of different hints I picked up here and 

 there. The Gallup plan I have practiced quite ex- 



tensively for years, while the other I use almost al- 

 together at the present time. All the particular 

 difference there is in the two plans is that, with the 

 latter, a new queen is given to the swarm, leaving 

 the old one to continue to do duty in the old hive; 

 while with the former the old queen goes with the 

 swarm, the same as she does in natural swarming, 

 thus leaving the bees to rear a queen of their own. 

 By giving each part a laying queen, great gain is 

 made; still the Gallup plan is a good one where one 

 can not rear the queens before he makes the 

 swarms, or feels too poor to buy them. None of 

 the plans of artificial increase should be used till 

 the hive is quite well filled with bees, and the bees 

 themselves are preparing for swarming. When 

 the proper time has arrived, go to any colony from 

 which you wish to take a swarm, and, after having 

 removed the cover and quilt or honey-board, drive 

 the bees out of the way with a little smoke so that 

 you can shave the capping off from some of the 

 sealed honey at the tops of the frames, unless you 

 think they have plenty of unsealed honey in the 

 hive. Just previous to doing this, you should find 

 the queen, and cage her on one of the combs with 

 one of the wire-cloth cages which will push into the 

 comb, as has been so often described. Having both 

 of the above doue, close the hive and beat on it with 

 the fist, at the same time blowing smoke in at the 

 entrance, just enough to frighten back the guards 

 as they come out to drive off the intruder. Having 

 the guards all turned back, give the hive several 

 sharp blows, enough to cause the bees to thorough- 

 ly fill themselves with honey; and if more than one 

 swarm is to be made, go to the next hive and pre- 

 pare them in the same way, while the first are fill- 

 ing themselves; otherwise you will have to wait 

 til! the bees have their sacs full. When this is ac- 

 complished, set the cap of any hive on a wide 

 board a little way off from the old hive (any box 

 will doi, and proceed to shake the bees off the 

 frames till you think you have about three-fourths 

 of them, shakiug them in front of the cap or box 

 on the wide hoard, into which they will run as fast 

 as they arc shaken off, if the same is raised up a 

 bee-space on the side next where they are shaken. 

 Lastly, take the frame having the queen on it, and, 

 after uncaging her, shake her and the bees off this 

 frame, letting them run in with the others. Now 

 close the hive, when the returning bees from the 

 field and what were left on the combs and about 

 the hive will make the colony in about the same 

 condition it would have been in had it cast a swarm. 

 Next take the cover having the bees in it; carry it 

 to the shade of some tree, and, after setting it 

 down, lean it up against the tree with the open 

 side out, exposed to the light. Leave them thus 

 while you are making other swarms, or for about 

 an hour, when they will conclude they are a sepa- 

 rate colony, and will behave just like a natural 

 swarm, having clustered in the box the same as a 

 swarm does on a limb. Now hive them as you 

 would a natural swarm, and they will work the 

 same, or as nearly so as is possible to have bees do 

 outside of natural swarming. 



The next way, and the one which I prefer when 

 I have laying queens to spare, is to proceed the 

 same as above till you get ready to shake off the 

 bees, when they are to be shaken into a box in- 

 stead of in front of a cap. This box is to be made 

 of a size to hold about half a bushel, the two sides 

 of which are to be of wire cloth, one permanently 



