720 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



November, 1919 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



bees on Hoffman frames, and bought locally 

 a colony of bees. My plan was to keep 

 them from swarming if possible, and run 

 them for comb honey during the clover sea- 

 son, and afterward to make increase. 



I clipped the queens and handled the 

 frames once a week to look for queen-cells. 

 One colony started queen-cells early in May, 

 in wet cold weather. Believing these to be 

 supersedure cells I did not disturb them. 

 When they were capped I removed one 

 frame with two or three good cells and one 

 frame of brood and honey into a new hive. 

 The parent colony superseded their queen 

 and stored about 25 pounds of surplus clover 

 honey after drawing out the comb in nine 

 shallow Hoifmau frames. The two-frame 

 nucleus, without any more help, raised what 

 I believe to be the best queen in our yard, 

 drew out the foundation in nine Hoffman 

 brood-frames, and later went into winter 

 quarters with more than enough stores. 



My first colony was a story and a half 

 high. About June 10, both brood-chamber 

 and super being full of brood, I placed an 

 excluder under the super and put the queen 

 below. I left it in this position a week to 

 make sure there were no eggs or brood under 

 three days old in the super, then raised it, 

 placing a super of 4 x 5 sections with full 

 sheets of foundation between, at the same 



time removing the excluder. The bees went 

 to work in the sections very soon. When 

 the brood had about half hatched out of the 

 top super I shook a part of the bees out of 

 it and removed it altogether, placing it on 

 a bottom-board in a new location and intro- 

 ducing a queen which I received by mail. 

 Thus nucleus built eight frames of comb and 

 stored plenty for winter. 



I also built up two other colonies by tak- 

 ing some brood from other hives and intro- 

 ducing a queen. 



After taking our inventory and placing a 

 value of $12.00 per colony on my bees, to- 

 gether with the 90 pounds of honey, I found 

 I broke about even. Our work and study 

 among the bees increased the pleasure we 

 always get out of our flower and vegetable 

 garden two or three fold. 



I was ready the next year with supplies 

 nailed and painted, with a queen-rearing 

 outfit of my own make, in order to experi- 

 ment with this most interesting part of bee- 

 keeping. I also made two observatory hives 

 in order to carry on my studies. 



I will eventually work into running some 

 bees for extracted honey; but for the pres- 

 ent I want comb honey for my neighbors 

 and friends and for our own table. 



Brooklyn, N. Y. J. 0. Stewart. 



One of Mr. Stewart's "ba-bees," helping Daddy. 



