H13 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



CONVEMSATIONS WITH DOOLITTLE 



At Borodino, New York. 



XKW QUEENS IX THE ANNEX 



'•^Vlien a hive is so full of bees 

 llial the bees begin to think about 

 olustering out, they will crowd in- 

 to an empty space which may be 

 about the hive, much sooner than 

 they "\\ill go on the outside for 

 the same purpose. Suppose that as soon 

 as the sections are filled with bees, and 

 before the swarming fever comes on 

 thorn, we boi'e a three-inch hole in one 

 side of the hive, and on the inside put a 

 piece of queen-excluding metal. Boi'e a 

 similar hole in an empty hive; cover it 

 with queen-excluding metal, and set this 

 empty hive right up against the other hav- 

 ing the bees in it, so that the holes match. 

 Then put a queen-cell in this empty hive. 

 Now the point I wish to know is, will 

 there not in time be a new swarm of bees 

 in that empty hive?" 



T doubt whether this will Avoi'k just as 

 you have outlined it ; but there may be 

 something in it, if the plan is modified. 

 From past experience I am convinced that, 

 if the bees did go into the empty hive on 

 the return of tlie queen after mating she 

 would enter the wrong hive, and in all prob- 

 ability be killed or balled by the bees until 

 crippled and spoiled for usefulness, even if 

 she finally superseded the old queen. 



Put what is there to hinder putting one 

 or two frames of brood and one of honey in 

 the empty hive and then giving the queen- 

 cell? T would not Avarrant the bees going 

 freely from one hive to the other to care for 

 that brood and queen-cell. If the young 

 queen should consider the old queen in the 

 parent hive her rival, so as to go to the ex- 

 cluding-metal and there challenge her to a 

 combat, the bees would doubtless ball her 

 till she was no good, or she would turn up 

 missing, as is usually the case when such a 

 combat is challenged. 



Many claim that a queen emerging under 

 such conditions will be cared for just the 

 same as if she were in an isolated hive or 

 nucleus, and in due time become fertile and 

 go to filling the combs with eggs. From 

 scores if not hundreds of attempts to work 

 out the plans with dual queeiis in a hive, as 

 given by the late Mr. Alexander and others, 

 my expei'ience has been that this cannot 

 always be depended upon. In having queen- 

 cells cared for and reared above and behind 

 qneen-excluding metal, I have had the be.^t 

 of success with the mother queen doing 

 duly just the same as if her progeny were 



not pei'fecting them by the score on the 

 other side of a perforated metal. It is only 

 wlien the young queens from these cells be- 

 gin to assert their " queenhood" that the 

 trouble seems to arise. 



" Would not the plan as I have given pre- 

 vent the original colony from swarming? 

 If so, this will make unnecessary some one 

 staying at home Sundays and other days to 

 watch for swarms, besides proving a boon to 

 those having out-apiaries which they Avish 

 to work for comb honey. 



Well, as I said before, I do not think it 

 would work just as you gave it, but b}' using 

 the suggestion given, as 1 have explained, 

 1 see no reason why it should not stop 

 swarming entirely. As soon as the young 

 queen lays, or before the old colony is 

 strong, take one or two more combs of brood 

 from it and put in their places frames of 

 empty comb or frames filled with comb 

 foundation, so the bees will have no chance 

 to build drone comb, quitting the brood thus 

 taken out over into the hive having the 

 young laying queen. As soon as the flowers 

 from your main source for surplus honej' 

 open, the original colony should have the 

 surplus arrangement put; on, in which are 

 " bait sections." The first honey will be put 

 in the sections rather than the combs in 

 cither hive, thus making your prospect of 

 success even greater than it could be other- 

 wise. At the same time, sections sliould be 

 placed over the part of the new hive where 

 the brood and combs are, so that in no case 

 the bees lack room to store all the honey 

 tliere is coming in. I would have these sec- 

 tions in every case filled with foundation, so 

 !hat the bees woLild have no desire to swarm 

 by being loath to build comb. 



Occasionally, or as often as the out- 

 apiary is visited, move more frames of 

 brood over to the ncAV hive, putting frames 

 filled with foundation in place of the 

 frames taken out each time until the new 

 hive is full, always putting on sections in 

 the case of either hive, as the colonies seem 

 to require. If the new colony is a little 

 sloAV in taking advantage of the sections, 

 give bait sections to this also, as the results 

 Avill be enhanced by getting the bees at 

 work in the sections at the earliest possible 

 lime as i-egai'ds the honey-flow. When well 

 at work in the sections, and in the early 

 pai-f of the flow, raise the first sujier and 

 nut another under it. to induce the filling of 

 as many sections as po.ssible. 



