•Mnk, 1919 



GI. EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



391 



After the swarm has entered the new hive, 

 the "old" or "parent'' eo'.oiiy may be plac- 

 ed close beside the new one, facing in the 

 same direction, and the entrance contracted 

 to a space only large enough for two or three 

 bees to pass at a time. This old colony may 

 be allowed to raise its own queen or the 

 t)ueen-cells may be torn down and a laying 

 (|ueeu introduced. In about a week, during 

 the middle of the <lay, when many liees are 



Bees do not always duster in convenient places on 

 branches of trees where they may be easily shaken 

 off. They may cluster on some unshakable object 

 when it will be necessary to capture them, as de- 

 scriLed Hi tiie next njiuiun. 



flying, move the old hive to a new stand. 

 Many of the flying bees will return; and, 

 finding their hive gone, will enter the new 

 one. This increases the size of the new 

 swarm and leaves so few^ bees in the old hive 

 that there is but little danger of an after- 

 swarm. Eather than place the old colony 

 beside the new and then move to a new lo- 

 cation in a week or so, some move to a new 

 location at the time of swarming, and pre- 

 vent after-swarms by tearing down all but 

 one good queen-cell. 



At first thought one might wonder that 

 the bees should take the trouble to raise so 

 many queen-cells when but one would be 

 suflicient; but if the one cell should for any 

 reason fail to hatch the colony would be 

 entirely helpless, having no means of rais- 

 ing another. Therefore quite a number are 

 provided; and when the first queen hatches 

 she partly tears down the other capped cells 

 so that the other queens will not hatch; or 

 if two or more hatch at the same time they 

 soon fight it out so that only one survives. 



Two or three weeks after the swarm is- 

 sues, the old colony should be examined for 

 eggs. If none are found, it will either mean 

 that the queen has not yet begun laying or 

 that she was lost in mating, and the colony 

 is queenless. In either case the best thing 

 to do is to give them a frame containing 

 eggs and young larvae. If a queen is in 

 the hive she will probably begin laying all 

 the sooner, because of the presence of the 

 larvae; and if the colony is queenless the 

 bees -will undoubtedly begin queen-cells, in 

 which case a ripe queen-cell should be given 

 them in a cell-protector or else a good laying 

 queen introduced. 



In order to hive a swarm that is accom- 

 panied by a queen with wings, the colony 

 should be shaken into a basket attached to 

 the end of a pole and placed on the ground 

 in front of the entrance. If they do not 

 seem inclined to enter, shaking them on the 

 ground will usually start them. Generally 

 a few of the bees take wing and return to 

 the clustering place, so that it may be neces- 

 sary to shake them from the tree or bush 

 several times to make certain that the queen 

 is also captured. 



Usually bees cluster on the branch of a 

 tree, in which case, if the queen has wings, 

 and it is, therefore, necessary to capture the 

 bees, the swarm may be easily shaken into 

 a basket or other receptacle. "When cluster- 

 ed as in the illustration, so that shaking is 

 impossible, the bees may, by means of a 

 soft feather or brush, or perhaps a handful 

 of w^eeds, be gently brushed down on to a 

 sheet spread on the ground beneath them. 

 The corners of the sheet may then be gather- 

 ed up and the bees carried to their new lo- 

 cation, where the sheet may be again spread 

 down, and the bees allowed to run into their 

 new hive. A little shaking of the edges 

 of the sheet furthest from the hive may per- 

 haps cause them to enter the hive more 

 readily. 



Next Talk. 



The next talk will explain the harvesting 

 of the honey. It will explain how one may 

 know when either comb or extracted honey 

 should be removed from the hive, and how 

 it may best be done without starting rob- 

 bing. Also there will be a description of 

 extracting, the arrangement of the equip- 

 ment, and the various steps in the process. 

 Tho it will not be necessary, still if the be- 

 ginner can visit an experienced beekeeper 

 and watch him extract, perhaps also helping 

 him if allowed to, he will doubtless pick up 

 additional hints. 



Beginner's Keferences. 



The beginner will be interested in ' ' The 

 Spirit of the Hive" page 357, but right here 

 we again caution him not to give room so 

 fast that there are a lot of unsealed sections 

 at the end of the honey flow. 



We also call the beginner's attention to 

 some of the "Straws" 368, "Sif tings" 370, 

 "Side Line Department," page 373, "Two 

 Colonies of Wild Bees," page 379, and 

 ' ' Gleaned by Asking, ' ' page 386. 



