484 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping m the Southwest 



" A young queen is half the 

 battle, both in fighting disease and 

 in securing surplus," says P. C. 

 Cliadwick, p. 96. Is this not only 

 true in a sense? I have seen many 

 young queens that were not as 

 good as older ones. Perhaps it 

 would be better to say "young good queens," 

 and better hit the mark. Nothing goes 

 further toward good results in beekeeping 

 than good queens. 



Many times have I called attention to the 

 mistake of extracting too close after the 

 honey harvest, and leaving the bees short of 

 stores during the winter months and the 

 breeding season in the following spring. It 

 is too risky, and many beekeepers have lost 

 bees as a consequence. It is a too common 

 practice that should be abandoned. The few 

 dollars' worth of honey that may be " rob- 

 bed " then would be worth more to the bees 

 and their owner in larger returns later. 

 * « » 



The divisible-brood-chamber hive has 

 proven most excellent in swai-m control this 

 spring, just at a time when it seemed that 

 every colony would cast not only one but 

 more swarms. In the apiaries we were 

 enabled to manipulate properly by inter- 

 changing the halves of the brood-chambers 

 at the right time. We " knocked swarming 

 in the head " in fine shape. Due to the 

 preceding heavy rains, floods, and bad 

 roads, we were not able to visit all the 

 apiaries; and the result was that we had 

 swarming galore at those not manipulated 

 at the proper time. Breaking up the brood- 

 cluster and relieving the congested condition 

 is the secret of swarm prevention. But this 

 must be done before the bees actually have 

 the swarming fever already on. 

 » » » 



The question has been asked me as to 

 what to do with a colony that already has 

 the swarming fever developed to such an 

 extent, and (jueen-cells already built, that 

 the mere manipulation of the hives and in- 

 terchanging of combs and breaking up the 

 brood-nest will not abate swarming. Colo- 

 nies in such an advanced condition very 

 often swarm in spite of the fact that their 

 brood-nest and the entire hive has been torn 

 up by manipulations seeking to alleviate the 

 swarming fever. The best procedure, there- 

 fore, is to help them along in the matter by 

 shaking them into a new hive on the old 

 stand after the old liive has been moved to 



one side. Only enough bees are carried with 

 the old stock to a new location in the api- 

 ary as are necessary to care properly for 

 the brood. Care is taken to set one comb, 

 with one or two fine queen-cells and adher- 

 ing bees, into the hive to be moved away, 

 without shaking at all, so as not to injure 

 the inmates in the cells. Better still, give a 

 laying queen to the old colony and thus 

 prevent delay in the progress of the colony. 

 « « « 



In answer to another question by one of 

 our readers, I wish to say that one can 

 double the number of his colonies and have 

 two strong ones in place of one in those 

 localities where the honey-dew comes later 

 in the season. Very often the early mes- 

 quite and horsemint flows fail to come in 

 our section. If we have done our duty we 

 have had our colonies built up to good 

 strong ones that would have been ready for 

 any early flow. It is often impossible to 

 tell whether mescjuite will or will not yield, 

 so it is well to make the preparations just 

 the same. In the event the early flows fail 

 to come, our attention may be immediately 

 turned toward making a good amount of 

 increase without interference with the later 

 flows. Increase properly made at this time 

 will result in the new colonies being as 

 strong as the old ones. Often the new 

 colonies, owing to the fact that these are 

 headed by prolific young queens, outstrip 

 the others in surplus production. We have 

 frequently doubled the number of colonies 

 in some of our apiaries, and harvested twice 

 the amount of surplus over yards that were 

 in practically the same kind of location 

 where we made no increase. 

 » * • 



It may be well here to give my method 

 of procedure in making increase in the 

 spring when we have early honey-flows. 

 The reader will bear in mind that we leave 

 a super of shallow extracting-combs, more 

 or less filled with honey, on the hives in the 

 fall for winter stores and additional breed- 

 ing room in the spring. Shortly before the 

 early honej^-flows come we slip on our comb- 

 honey supers with full sheets of thin-super 

 foundation, after raising the extracting- 

 super up. This method is an excellent one 

 to get bees started in the comb-honey supers 

 rapidly. 



More or less brood is contained in the 

 extracting-supers at this time; and after the 

 bees are well going on the foundation they 

 can be removed, with the bees in them, to 



Continued on page 485. 



