390 



GLEANINGS IN 



EE CULTURE 



June, 1919 



will be giveu up and the queen-cells torn 

 down. Ten days after swarming the lower 

 story is replaced with the upper hive of 

 bees, brood, and queen, and the hive with 

 two frames of brood, which now has a few 

 queen-cells, may be saved for a nucleus and 

 placed on a new stand, taking pains to con- 

 tract the entrance, so the brood will not be- 

 come chilled. 



Production of Extracted Honey. 



If producing extracted honey, and the su- 

 pers contain foundation, the full set of 

 flames should be used until after the foun- 

 dation is drawn out. After that, at least 

 one comb should be removed and the extra 

 space evenly divided between the combs. 

 This will give more room for storing honey, 

 and will result in combs nicely bulged and 

 therefore easily uncapped. Super room 

 should be supplied by giving the new su- 

 per next to the brood-chamber, as in comb- 

 honey production, only more room may be 

 given and thus the danger of swarming may 

 be lessened. 



Until a week after the beginning of the 

 honey flow the queen may be allowed access 

 to two stories, keeping brood in both. This 

 gets the bees into the habit of storing above, 

 so that when the queen is confined by the 

 excluder to one story the bees store above 

 more readily. Whenever combs of brood are 

 left separated from the queen by an ex- 

 cluder, the bees freejuently start cjueen-cells 

 on such combs. These queen-cells should be 

 torn down seven or eight days after separat- 

 ing the queen from the brood. 



Except when brood is separated from the 

 queen it would seem that the queen-cells 

 should not be started if our directions have 

 been carefully followed. Yet this some- 

 times haj^pens. In case one finds such 

 queen-cells we suggest the plan given in the 

 last issue. Place on the old stand a hive 

 containing the queen, nine frames of comb 

 or foundation, and at the center one 

 comb with a small patch of eggs and young 

 larvse, and above this a queen-excluder, su- 

 pers (two of which contain practically emp- 

 ty combs), and, on top of all, the hive of 

 brood with capped queen-cells torn down. 

 No cover and hive-bottom intervene be- 

 tween the supers and upper hive of brood as 

 in the comb-honey plan. Eight days later 

 move the upper story to a new location and 

 leave with one capped queen-cell, and con- 

 tracted entrance to prevent the chilling of 

 the brood. The queen-cell left should be 

 the best one — long yet plump, with well- 

 defined corrugations on the sides. To pre- 

 vent injuring the unhatched queen, queen- 

 cells should be handled carefully, and held 

 in the same position in which they were 

 built on the combs. If no increase is want- 

 ed, tear down all queen-cells about eight 

 days after placing above, and leave the 

 brood to hatch and increase the original 

 colony. When applying this plan early, 

 while' the nights were still cool, we suggest- 

 ed putting the hive of brood immediately 

 above the excluder; but during the honey 



flow, when it is more difiicult to prevent 

 swarming, there should be at least two su- 

 pers of practically empty combs between in 

 order to make the bees of the upper brood- 

 nest feel more queenless, and therefore raise 

 a nicer lot of queen-cells, and also to pre- 

 vent the nurse bees supplied with royal jelly 

 from going below and starting queen-cells 

 in the lower brood-chamber. 



Natural Swarming. 



There may be some who desire an easier 

 way of making increase rather than using 

 either method given under the last two head- 

 ings. For their benefit we shall describe 

 natural swarming and an easy way of hiving 

 the swarm. 



Soon after the queen-cells are sealed, the 

 swarm ' ' issues, ' ' that is, about two-thirds 

 or three-fourths of the bees, together with 

 the queen, leave the old hive and go to a 

 new home, which quite often is a hollow 

 tree in the woods. If one happens to be near 

 the hive just before the swarm leaves, he 

 may notice an unusual activity of bees run- 

 ning about the front of the hive; and if the 

 hive is opened, there he may find great ex- 

 citement and a busy rushing of bees here 

 and there in every direction. In a few 

 minutes the bees begin pouring from the 

 hive by the thousands until in three or four 

 minutes the air is filled with a great cloud 

 of humming bees. These swarming bees are 

 very good-natured, since they have filled 

 their honey-sacs with honey, which is partly 

 to sustain them until again able to gather 

 nectar from the fields and partly to convert 

 into comb on arrival at the new home. After 

 flying about for a few minutes they cluster 

 or form in a large ball, usually on a branch 

 of a tree not far from their hive, waiting to 

 make certain that the queen is with them 

 before they leave for their new home, which 

 in most cases has probably been chosen by 

 scout bees sent out several days previously. 



If the queen has been clipped she will be 

 found climbing helplessl^y about on the grass 

 in front of the hive, attempting to join the 

 swarm, which, of course, she is prevented 

 from doing on account of her clipped wings. 

 After caging her in a spiral cage, put her in 

 the shadei. entrance of the new hive of 

 combs or foundation which has been placed 

 on the old stand, facing in the same direc- 

 tion as the original hive. The hive should 

 also contain one comb with young larvae 

 (very important in case of a queen with 

 wings), and above this hive should be plac- 

 ed the supers removed from the old colony, 

 for the new colony will now work with re- 

 newed vim, while the old colony will be 

 composed mostly of young bees, and will 

 probably be without a laying queen for as 

 much as two weeks, and will not be in con- 

 dition to store any surplus for some time. 



In a short time the bees will discover that 

 the queen is not with them, and will, there- 

 fore, return to the hive. After they have 

 begun running in nicely the queen should be 

 liberated and allowed to run in with the 

 rest. 



