MAY 15, 1915 



397 



spendiiifT a lot of liard-oariied money on 

 patents tliat cost much but which are worth 

 i)nt vei'v little if anything- at all. I have 

 more faith in a urariual evolution in beehive 

 improvement than in any radical chansres; 

 and 1 believe also that it is an admitted tact 

 that beehive patents are not very jiopulav 

 with beekeepers of experience; and in spite 

 of the scoies of beehive patents that have 

 followed the introduction of the Lauii- 

 stroth hive there has been very little hive 

 improvement througrh the efforts made bj' 



their inventoi"s. 



* * * 



ALMOST ABSOLUTE SWARJt PRKVKNTION. 



T have been exceedingly successful in 

 swarm prevention upon eveiy occasion 

 when 1 was able to do the " stunt " at the 

 proper time. This " knocking- swarming in 

 the head '' has been described by me before; 

 l)ut I camiot help mentioning it again, as 

 it continues to pi'ove successful, in my 

 iiands at least. 



To the experienced beekeeper it is well 

 known, or should be. that swarm prevention 

 ought to be begun by the beekeeper before 

 the bees have the "swarming fever." I 

 found, long ago, that after the desire to 

 swarm has been allowed to come over a 

 colony of bees, and conditions for swarm- 

 ing are favorable, it is exceedingly ditficult 

 to keep them from carrying out this desire. 

 ('onse(|uentlv I begin operations for this 

 )>nrpose jirior to the time swarming actu- 

 ally begins although I have had many satis- 

 factory results from swarm-prevention 

 manipulations, even at times when the bees 

 bad stolen a march. 



^[ost of the readers will remember that 

 nearly all of my bees are in divisible-brood- 

 chamber hives. It will also be remembered 

 that I have explained how we winter the 

 colonies in three of these shallow stories. 

 prej)aring an up])er super with shallow ex- 

 tracting-combs partly filled with honey for 

 ailditional winter stores. I have also men- 

 tioned the essentials of this additional super 

 for breeding room in the spring, insuring 

 more powerful colonies, and keeping the 

 bees contented longer than with the old way 

 of crowding tliem into a smaller brood- 

 chamber. Besides furnishing the extra 

 breeding room this super takes care of any 

 honey not needed in the brood-chamber in 

 the spring, and consequently prevents the 

 clogired brood-nest and a crowded condition, 

 so conducive to swarming. 



The above-mentioned conditions already 

 keeji the colonies contented longer; but a 

 congested condition of the brood-nest can 

 l)revail in even the most roomy hive. And 

 I discovered, many years ago, that the 



Tuere addition of room above, below, or even 

 all around such a congested brood-nest may 

 not prevent swarming if conditions for 

 swarming are at all favoi-able. It is abso- 

 lutely necessary to break up this mass of 

 brood in order to ai'i'ive at the desired 

 lesnlts. it is for tliis reason that combs of 

 brood are replaced in the brood-nest with 

 empty ones or with frames filled with foun- 

 dation and by vai-ious otlier methods. 1 

 aim at tlie same thing, but in a quicker 

 manner and with less labor. 



The manipulations consist of simply ex- 

 changing the two lower stories of the hive, 

 ])lacing the lower one on top of the second, 

 which now rests on the bottom-boai'd. Usu- 

 ally most of the brood of the colony is in 

 the second or middle shallow story. The 

 lower one is partly empty, especially in the 

 lower part of the combs. Thus the most of 

 the brood is switched to the bottom, and 

 the empty comb of the former lowest story 

 is now immediately above this, or right in 

 the center of the brood-chamber where it 

 ought to be. As there is nearlj- always 

 some honey in the upper portion of the 

 combs of the super, now on the bottom- 

 board, and which is now in the center of 

 the brood-nest, the bees soon move it and it 

 is cari'ied out throughout the honey season. 



The super is replaced on top of the hive 

 of all normal-sized colonies. It contains 

 some brood and mostly honey unless the 

 colonies have run short of stores, as they 

 sometimes do when breeding heavilj'. If a 

 colony is very strong, or in the event it is 

 not long until the honey-flow may begin, 

 another super, with the frames filled with 

 full sheets of thin super foundation, is giv- 

 en underneath the shallow extracting-super, 

 and the usual method of tiering up supers 

 thus pro\'ides additional room. 



If this manipulation is made shortly be- 

 fore the swarming season, and plenty of 

 room provided after that, there is hardly 

 any need of another exchange of the halves 

 of the brood-chamber. This should be 

 watched, however, and a second manipula- 

 tion made if neces.sary. The work is carried 

 out so quickly, especially if two work to- 

 gether, and the results obtained are so 

 valuable, that it pays to do it. It hardly 

 takes longer to make a complete operation 

 of the entire hive, as described, than it 

 takes to open up and remove one comb 

 from the regular deep-frame hive when it 

 is desired to exchange combs of brood for 

 ('m))ty ones or for frames with foundation. 

 According to my idea the brood-nests are 

 left in a better condition after manipula- 

 tions than in the deep hives cut up by the 

 inserted combs or frames of foundation. 



