1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



415 



bees would be likely to fill these combs 

 with honey as soon as the brood emerg'ed 

 from them, thus giving- the three combs solid 

 with honey instead of having that much 

 honey in the sections, thus thwarting the 

 onl}' purpose of contraction, which is, to 

 secure the first and best quality of honey 

 in the sections, and also to entice the bees 

 to work in the sections before they com- 

 mence to store hone}^ in the brood-chamber 

 to any extent." 



"Then you do not think these combs 

 would take the place of dummies? " 



"No. How could they? The bees, in 

 this case, could and would store honey in 

 those cells as fast as the brood emerged, 

 while with the dummies none could be 

 stored, for the^' simply take up space. 

 Then, again, this would be rather a meth- 

 od of expansion, for the bees would have to 

 spread out over these combs to keep the 

 brood warm, so few could get into the sec- 

 tions while the dummies simply take up 

 space, the bees not having any desire to 

 hang around the outside of them." 



"I think I see that part. But what is 

 the second thing against it? '• 



" If the combs had any amount of sealed 

 brood in them, so that the emerging of this 

 brood materially' strengthened the swarm, 

 it would be very likely to result in swarm- 

 ing, or the issuing of ' virgin swarms,' as 

 they are called, where a swarm of the pres- 

 ent season casts a swarm." 



" Could not these swarms be returned? " 



" The returning of them does little good, 

 for, as a rule, they ai'e much more persist- 

 ent in continued swarming to the end of the 

 honej'-fiow than is an old colony; and this 

 persistency always destroys the prospect of 

 a good yield of section honey. I have often 

 had swiirms go to work with a will in a 

 large number of sections, working till they 

 were about two-thirds completed, and then, 

 just as I was priding- m3'self on having a 

 large lot of beautiful honey from such new 

 swarm, thej' would swarm, and be so per- 

 sistent in swarming that none of said sec- 

 tions would be fully completed, while the 

 nice looks of the work they had begun 

 would be spoiled through the long failure 

 of its completion." 



"Well, that does not look encouraging, 

 surel3^ I had not thought that this brood 

 would cause them to swarm. My idea was 

 to help boom the section honej' by adding 

 bees to the swarm by way of the emerging 

 brood. But while we are talking, give us 

 the third reason j'ou have against my plan." 



" The third is what will be the greatest 

 trouble of all." 



" What! something worse than you have 

 been speaking about?" 



"Yes. The main trouble with such a 

 plan of working lies in the persistency' of 

 new swarms in building drone comb in the 

 remaining part of the hive, where any part 

 of it is supplied with any thing in the 

 shape of frames filled with comb." 



" Why do they do this? " 



"The w/iv ot this is something I could 



never fully understand; but an experience 

 of more than thirty years along this line 

 has proven to me that bees can not be de- 

 pended on to build worker comb during the 

 first week after being hived, if there is any 

 completed comb in the hive at the time of 

 hiving a prime swarm, more than what lit- 

 tle is necessary to use as starters along the 

 top-bars to the frames, where starters of 

 comb are used in preference to comb foun- 

 dation, as some think better." 



" Why do j'ou say prijiie swarms? " 

 "With second or third swarms the case 

 is different, as bees are more apt to build 

 worker comb with a young queen when she 

 first commences to lay, and only unfertile 

 queens accompany these latter swarms ; 

 and in this case the queen does not com- 

 mence to lay till the bees are fully accus- 

 tomed to their surroundings, and they build 

 but very little comb, where any combs are 

 put in the hive, till their queen commences 

 to lay. And when she does begin to lay 

 she crowds the comb with eg-gs as fast as 

 built, thus helping also the matter of build- 

 ing worker comb. Then the prime swarm 

 has a much larger force of bees; and, while 

 she is hanging about the frames of comb 

 and brood given, depositing her first few 

 eggs there, the bees are building comb rap- 

 idly; and as they see no necessity for build- 

 ing worker combs to be occupied with hon- 

 ey, they go to building combs for the stor- 

 ing of honey, which generally are of the 

 drone size of cells." 



" Is this kept up till the hive is filled? " 

 " No, not unless the queen is very old or 

 very poor. After the bees have built what 

 would amount to two or three frames of 

 drone comb, and the queen recovers her 

 normal egg-laying powers which she had 

 before the swarm issued, then the bees go 

 on and build worker comb ; but we have 

 worker and drone comb all mixed through 

 the frames, which is a condition an enter- 

 prising apiarist does not like, one which 

 should never be tolerated by any would-be 

 bee-keeper, even, and one which, if allowed 

 to remain, results in a diminished crop of 

 honey each year as long as the combs are 

 allowed to remain in this shape." 

 " What would be your advice then? " 

 "My advice to all is, and has been ever 

 since comb foundation came into use, to use 

 only starters in the frames in hiving swarms, 

 or else fill all frames with foundation, or 

 give all frames filled with comb. And I 

 believe this is good advice too." 



" Why not use part frames of comb and 

 part frames of foundation? " 



"Frames filled with foundation, mixed 

 with those containing combs, do much bet- 

 ter than frames having only starters when 

 used with combs; but even this is objec- 

 tionable on account of the bees lengthening 

 the cells on the combs given while they are 

 working out the foundation, so that the 

 combs along the top-bars to the frames will 

 be very thick when completed, while those 

 with foundation p.rc c^rrc'^y-iondingly thin. 

 But I have some work- I must ■■() at n »vv." 



