FEBRUARY 15, 1915 



and brood-chamber interchangeable. I run 

 for extracted principally, and use queen- 

 excluders on all hives. 



Four years ago I bought 28 colonies about 

 six miles from my apiaiy. They were in all 

 kind.s of hives; but the greater part were in 

 the old Simplicity eight-frame in poor con- 

 dition. 1 wished to transfer them to my 

 hives, leaving them where they were, as an 

 outyard. It was the middle of Api'il, and 

 a good deal of honey was coming in. I 

 know it was " some job " to transfer in the 

 old way, for I would have to work alone, 

 and the former owner had hived his swarms 

 on empty frames, using no foundation, and 

 the bee.s had built the combs across many of 

 them. After thinking the problem over for 

 several days while T was getting my hives 

 hauled up. T decided to try putting ray hives 

 on top of the old ones, letting the bees work 

 into them. 



Tt was and still is my belief that brood- 

 rearing will go foi"ward much faster if the 

 new hive is placed on top rather than below 

 the old hive, for there it receives the heat 

 from the bees and brood. It was my obser- 

 vation and belief that the bees would remove 

 the honey from the old hive below to the 

 new hive above after the brood-nest liad 

 been established in the new hive, and would 

 not store anj"^ incoming honey in the old 

 hive. 



For the factory-made hives I cut a strip 

 1x2x20; fastened two small brackets to 

 each, and, after gi^nng a little smoke at the 

 entrance, nailed one to the side of each hi-^e 

 flush with the top. I then pried off the old 

 cover and set one of my hive-bodies on to]\ 

 each frame filled with full sheets of medium 

 brood foundation. Over my frames I use 

 a super-cover, bee-space abo^ e and below ; 

 on that a tray two inches deep, burlap bot- 

 tom, filled with planer sha\'ings; and, last. 

 a telescope cover covered with galvanized 

 iron. T use the tray so that the top of the 

 hive will be the warmest, causing the mois- 

 ture to condense on the sides and ends, 

 where it will run down and out of the en- 

 trance. 



After arriving at the yard it took me less 

 than half a day to fix up the 28 colonies. 

 There wa.s no mess, no stings, no interrup- 

 tion to the workers, for they were working 

 as freely as ever when I looked at them 

 after eating my lunch. 



Two weeks later I again visited the yard 

 and found the bees working heavily on soft 

 maple, from which they usually gather much 

 surplus, there being many trees, and voi-y 

 large ones, of this variety in my vicinity. 



Upon examining a colony I found most 

 of the foundation drawn out and filled with 



163 



honey excepting a half-moon-shaped space 

 in the center of several of the central 

 frames, and in some of these I found eggs. 

 I immediately lifted off the liive-body, now 

 acting as super; put on a 16x20 queen- 

 excluder, and set the super back on. With 

 the smoker I then drove the bees down 

 llwough the excluder, lifted off the super 

 again, and there, trying to follow the bees, 

 was her majesty. Then I felt sure the 

 system would work. 



After replacing the super or hive-body 

 carefully back in place, so as not to injure 

 the queen, I proceeded to work the remain- 

 der. Distributing the excluders one to each 

 colony, T lifted off the super without dis- 

 fui'bing the covers; then put on the excluder 

 and replaced the super. This took me less 

 than an hour. When I left, each colony 

 had a queen-excluder between the super and 

 brood-chamber. 



About a week later I again visited the 

 bees and examined each colony. In every 

 super, excepting five, I found brood and 

 eggs, thereby proving I had the queen above 

 the excluders. From these five I removed 

 the excluders and covers; put on top a wire 

 screen with a two-inch rim that I use for 

 moving bees ; smoked the bees, and drummed 

 them up into the super. I then replaced the 

 excluder, drove the bees below, and found 

 tlie queens of all five, thus leaving the en- 

 tire 28 queens above the excluders. 



On this trip I gave each colony the second 

 body with full sheets of foundation. Later, 

 OS the flow from vine maple came on, which 

 is our greatest surplus-producer, I gave 

 them a super with excluder below; and, 

 still later, more supers as they were needed. 

 I did not disturb the old hives until some 

 time in June, when I swung my hives off tl'.e 

 old ones on to their new bottom-boards and 

 removed the old combs. I found them dry. 

 and clear of every thing excepting a few 

 cells of old pollen, all brood hatched, all 

 honey removed above, and all drones gone. 

 In tile five Avhich T had to drive I found 

 more tlian an abundance of drones, which I 

 trapped and killed. 



From these colonies T secured a good crop 

 of honey and one swarm. They were not 

 interrupted in their work, and the transfer 

 caused very little trouble. They were re- 

 queened the following year. Since then I 

 liave bought several colonies each year, and 

 have transferred them in like manner with 

 perfect success. As soon as I find eggs in 

 the new combs I slip a queen-excluder under. 

 Sometimes I drive the bees down at once 

 and see the queen; at other times, if i am 

 busy, I look for eggs a week later. The 

 great point is, the bees are not interrupted 



