866 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



nothing" in the supers while other colonies 

 are storing- rapidly, I shall have the bees 

 shaken into the prepared hives as soon as 

 the above-named conditions come under my 

 observation. When these conditions pre- 

 vail I have always found that there is a 

 congested brood -chamber. The queen is 

 forced to stop laying because every cell is 

 filled with honey as fast as the brood 

 hatches. Why the bees will not store above 

 when there is plenty of room to do so is 

 something I do not understand. Sometimes 

 these idle bees prepare for swarming- by 

 starting queen-cells, and sometimes they do 

 not. In either case the sooner their discon- 

 tent with conditions in the brood-chamber 

 is overcome, the sooner work in the upper 

 stories will be resumed. E. Bevins. 



Leon, la. 



SHAKING SWARMS ON THE INSTALLMENT 



plan; a UNIQUE SCHEME TO GIST 



DRAWN COMBS FOR SECTIONS. 



This season above all others I remember 

 - — with only two or three good honey daj's — 

 has caused me to look at swarming as a 

 useless waste of time — to the bees at least. 

 Now, the way I shook my swarms is not 

 unlike the man who decir^ed to cut the tail 

 off his dog. Thinking it would be too much 

 of a shock to the dog to take it all off at 

 once he decided to t^ke it off on the install- 

 ment plan — an inch or two at a time as he 

 could spare it. I don't like to let my bees 

 get ready to swarm; for if they do they act 

 iiisappointed unless allowed to. Therefore 

 at the proper time I take away one, two, or 

 three frames of brood as I think best, and 

 replace them with frames containing start- 

 ers an inch wide or more. Yes, the first 

 thing the bees do is to build drone comb, 

 and that, too, vi'ith a vengeance; but before 

 there is brood in it I cut it out and let them 

 commence over again. I use this comb in 

 the sections; and here let me say I use little 

 but drawn comb in sections. Perhdps 3'ou 

 pity me for being so foolish; but never mind. 

 Should there be eggs in this drone comb, 

 leave it where it is cool for a day or so, and 

 they won't hatch. 



My bees will get to work in sections fill- 

 ed withdrawn comb before they will attempt 

 to swarm, providing there is one or more 

 frames in the brood-chamber in which they 

 can build comb. With this plan I never 

 think of watching for swarms, as some of 

 my bees are at outyards with no one in 

 charge of them. 



Now, then, when I get plenty of sections, 

 filled with drawn comb, and the bees at 

 work in them, and honey coming in, I 

 "shook" the rest of the frames containing 

 brood, and replace them with frames with 

 starters only. Now about those frames of 

 brood. I put a lot of them together, some- 

 what destitute of bees, with a young queen; 

 and as the brood hatches out it soon gets to 

 be strong with bees. I then take away 

 part of the combs and put on sections; and 

 if plenty of sections are given, it seldom at- 

 tempts to swarm. But those shook swarms, 



after the summer is over and the harvest 

 ended, will up and swarm some warm day 

 — at least that is what they have been do- 

 ing of late. D. S. Hall. 

 South Cabot, Vt. 



A METHOD WHEREBY THE BEES ARE NOT 



SHAKEN FROM THE INSIDE OF THE OLD 



HIVE. 



I have practiced the shook-swarm method 

 for years with good success, but I do not 

 shake the bees from the inside of the old 

 hive, for by that means the old queen may 

 get into the new hive. The proper way is 

 to get a new hive ready with foundation 

 and one or two frames of brood without 

 bees. Take it near a hive that is in condi- 

 tion to spare a swarm, and if they are 

 clustered out at the entrance, so much the 

 better. Put a caged queen into the new 

 hive; for if either hive is left to raise a 

 queen it will take nearlj' a month, which 

 means valuable time lost, and about half of 

 the bees will die of old age. After giving 

 them a little smoke so that they will not fly 

 much nor sting, brush them off the outside 

 of the hive and carry it to a new place. 

 Set the new hive on the old location, and 

 the job is done. 



All the bees that were clustered out, as 

 well as the field workers, will be in the 

 new hive, and they will keep coming from 

 the old hive to the new one for several daj's. 



One will readily see that it is an improve- 

 ment on natural swarming, for both hives 

 have a laj'ing queen, and will not raise any, 

 consequently there are never any after- 

 swarms. Wm. Reynolds. 



Corwall-on-Hudson, N. Y., Sept. 21. 



A BELIEVER IN SHOOK SWARMS. 



I worked two colonies this way this sea- 

 son, and they did better than any of the 

 rest in the apiary. Each of them gave 

 about 125 lbs. of extracted honey, and the 

 old colon}' (that is, the frames of brood) 

 gave a crate of sections, 21 in a crate. 

 They worked for all they were worth, and 

 never thought of swarming, although they 

 were crowded out behind the division-board 

 so as to build comb there. I think this a 

 splendid plan to overcome swarming. I in- 

 tend running largely on this plan next year. 

 Chris. Grimoldby. 



Owen Sound, Can. 



THE SHOOK-SWARM PLAN SPECIALLY AP- 

 PLICABLE FOR OUT-APIARIES. 



You ask for the experience of those who 

 have practiced the system of shook or 

 brushed swarms. I should like to say that 

 I have found the system most excellent, es- 

 pecially for out-apiaries, as it seems to 

 come as near preventing swarming as we 

 can come to it. I have practiced it ever 

 since Mr. Stachelhausen told us about it in 

 Gleanings, and shall hold on to it until 

 something better is offered. 



Pomona, Cal. M. R. Kuehne. 



