Yol. XTII. 



OCT. 15, 1889. 



No. 20. 



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OUT- APIARIES, NO. XVII. 



SPECIAL PLAN OF INCREASE FOR OUT-APIARIES. 



fOU probably know better than I what plan of 

 increase is best for you; but there is one 

 way that can be used by means of out-apia- 

 ries that I' think well to mention, and there 

 may be times when you may think best to 

 use it. One year, with plenty of empty combs I in- 

 creased 13 colonies to 81, and took 1200 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted buckwheat honey. There is nothing spe- 

 cially new about the plan, only that you can easily 

 make bees stay where you put them, if you take 

 them from one apiary to another. 



If you please I will take two colonies to work 

 with, as the same thing can be done with a larger 

 number. As soon as the season will warrant it, 

 take the queen with one frame of brood and bees 

 from No. 1; put it in an empty hive which we will 

 call No. 3, and set No. 3 in place of No. 2, setting No. 

 2 in a new location. Take from No. 1 any frames 

 not filled with brood, and exchange with No. 2 for 

 frames of brood. No. lis now full of frames of brood, 

 and has a full force of bees, and will at once go to 

 work rearing queen-cells. You have your own plans 

 for raising the best queen-cells, and can use them; 

 and the day after the queen is taken away from No. 1, 

 or as soon thereafter as convenient, insert in each 

 frame of No. 1 a queen-cell. If you' have no better 

 way, I think you will find that No. 1, if you let it 

 entirely alone, will raise some very good queen- 

 cells; and about nine days sifter you have taken the 

 queen away, go to the :hive and cut out a good cell 

 from a frame which has more than one cell, and in- 

 sert it in a frame which has none, so that each of 

 the frames shall have a cell. It is not necessary to 

 destroy any of the cells. If there should be several 

 on one comb it will do no harm. If the cells are in- 

 serted in the morning, you will probably find them 



fastened in all right in the evening; but if any fail 

 you must insert others. Fasten the frames if nec- 

 essary. Next day take the hive to the out-apiary, 

 making sure that the bees have abundant ventila- 

 tion. When you get to the out-apiary, smoke the 

 bees so that they will not immediately take flight, 

 and put each frame, with its queen-cell and bees, 

 into an empty hive, thus making a nucleus of each 

 frame, giving- each an empty comb. You thus see 

 that each nucleus has its equal share of bees of all 

 ages, and I don't know of any way in which you can 

 thus evenly divide them without taking to another 

 apiary. 



In two weeks from the time No. 2 was moved, it 

 will be ready to be operated upon the same as No. 

 1. Put its queen in a new hive, to be called No. 4, 

 and put No. 4 in place of No. 3. No. 2 can then be 

 taken to the out-apiary, as also No. 3 and No. 4. If 

 none of the young queens have failed, we have as 

 many new colonies as we bad frames with queen- 

 cells; and if the hives are 8-frame hives, there will 

 be nine colonies for each one we started with. We 

 are not likely, however, to succeed so well as this, 

 and very likely some of the frames taken in No. 3 

 will need to be given to some of the first nuclei that 

 failed to secure laying'queens. If the increase is 

 five or six fold, it will be doing pretty well. The 

 first colonies formed will become strong enough to 

 spare some frames of brood, which will be needed 

 to build up those started two weeks later. Then if 

 any of them become crowded with honey, the ex- 

 tractor can be used to give the queen more room. 



You will see that this is a good way to form a 

 new apiary, for you are relieving' the home apiary 

 at the time of greatest increase of bees; and if you 

 are anxious for increase, it is at least a good way. 

 You might thus take 12 or 15 colonies to a new spot 

 where there was good pasturage, especially fall 

 pasturage, and allow them to build up at their 



