Sept. 10, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



581 



Now, you will say. We want you to speak of a plan, or 

 some plans, to prevent swarming and increase. Well, it is 

 this way : The plan consists of two parts. At first a 

 brushed swarm is made, and then the second part of the 

 manipulation, all the bees which will afterwards hatch 

 from the brood are given back to this swarm at the proper 

 time ; and this can be done in different ways. If we pro- 

 duce extracted or bulk comb honey the plan is more simple, 

 and I will explain it first. 



One thing I have to mention. If a brushed swarm is 

 made, or a natural swarm is used just at the beginning of 

 the main honey-flow for producing comb honey in sections, 

 I always give starters only in the brood-frames, and full 

 sheets of foundation in the sections. For extracted honey 

 I prefer empty combs, or full sheets of foundation in the 

 brood-chamber. I think you know the reason for this. 

 Now to our management. 



• First Pi,.\n. — If a colony is ready to swarm, and the 

 honey-flow will commence in about two or three weeks, and 

 extracted honey is to be produced, I set a new brood-cham- 

 ber on the old stand with one comb containing open brood 

 and the queen ; the balance full sheets of foundation, a 

 queen-excluder on top, and over this all the stories of the 

 colony in the old order. If I can't find the old queen I 

 brush off the bees from the brood-combs into the hive, or 

 in front of it, till I am sure the queen will be under the ex- 

 cluder. This manipulation keeps this colony from swarm- 

 ing for three or four weeks, and consequently it depends 

 upon the locality whether it is sufficient or not. 



Second Plan. — We need a simple implement for this 

 plan. It is a board, like a Porter escape-board, but in place 

 of the bee-escape it contains two square holes about 2x4 

 inches, and wire-screens nailed on both sides of the board 

 over these holes, so the bees can't feed through. On one 

 end, about 2 inches of the rim is cut out for an alighting- 

 hole. These double-wire screens can be used in the apiary 

 for different purposes. 



Now, we again make a brushed swarm on the old stand 

 with the old queen, a double wire-screen on top, the alight- 

 ing-hole in the front, and on top of this all the brood-frames 

 with a sufficient number of bees for nourishing the brood. 

 A queen-cell from selected stock can be givon to this upper 

 colony. When this queen is hatched and fertilized the 

 wire-screen is removed, and which queen is selected, we 

 allow it to be fought out by the queens themselves. In 

 nearly all cases the young queen will kill the old one, and 

 this colony will not swarm any more the same year. This 

 plan is the invention of Mr. M. R. Kuehne, of California, 

 which he described to me in a private letter. 



Third Pl.^n. — If we wish to keep the old queen we can 

 use another trick. We set the hive with the trood-combs 

 on the side of the brushed swarm, and give a ripe queen- 

 cell, if none is on the combs. This colony is weak, and the 

 first young queen that hatches will destroy the other queen- 

 cells. In a week after brushing she will have done this job, 

 and we will see it, if any queen-cell is found with the side 

 torn open by the bees. Now, in the evening, we simply 

 change the places of the two colonies, and one hour after- 

 wards, when the bees have ceased to fiy, we change places 

 again. What's that for? Well, in the evening many field- 

 bees from the swarm will enter the hive with the virgin 

 queen ; they are used to a fertile queen, and will kill the 

 young one during the night in nine cases out of ten. The 

 next morning we set this hive on top of the swarm, and a 

 wire-screen between the two, which can be removed about 

 six hours afterwards. 



These plans can be used for the production of extracted 

 honey. The old brood-combs, which are now on top of the 

 swarm, will be filled with honey, which can be extracted. 

 For the production of section honey we can use similar 

 plans, but we have to overcome some difficulties. 



The forced-swarm method for section honey has a 

 double purpose. First, to prevent swarming, and, second, 

 to have the colony in the right condition to start to work 

 in the supers at once. This is secured by the empty brood- 

 chamber. There are no empty cells in which honey could 

 be stored, so it inust go into the supers. For the first pur- 

 pose we would not need any manipulation, because during 

 the main honey-flow the bees will not swarm here. So it 

 is plain the forced-swarm method must be used just at the 

 beginning of the main honey-flow. Probably we can keep 

 our bees from swarming before this time by using very 

 large hives, and by spreading the brood once in awhile, or, 

 in some localities, where the bees swarm just at that time, 

 we can use the plan I recommended about four or five years 

 ago. 



Fourth Plan. — A brushed swarm is made as before, 



and the parent colony set at the side of it. The hatching 

 bees are afterwards united to the swarm by using the well- 

 known Heddon plan of preventing after-swarms or trans- 

 ferring. All this is old. If anything is new, it is that 

 these old manipulations are used for another and new pur- 

 pose. 



Fifth Plan. — For this purpose, to add the bees hatch- 

 ing from the brood to the swarm, the bee-keepe?s in Col- 

 orado use another way. Over the top of the brushed swarm 

 are set one or two section-supers, then the double-wire 

 screen-board, and over this the brood-combs with some 

 bees. Now, a canal is made out of three laths, which leads 

 from the upper alighting-hote down near to the lower 

 alighting-hole. The upper end of this canal is closed. The 

 bees from the upper hive have to go down, and when they 

 return to the hive they will mostly enter the lower hive. In 

 three weeks all the bees have hatched, and can be united 

 with the swarm, and the empty combs used elsewhere or 

 melted into wax. I have some objections to this plan, but 

 the Colorado bee-keepers say it works all right. Mr. F. L. 

 Thompson described this way in the Progressive Bee- Keeper 

 some time ago. 



Sixth Plan. — Kuehne's plan, too, can be used for sec- 

 tion honey, with a little variation. 



Seventh Plan. — Some of our Texas bee-keepers prefer 

 smaller hives, and their bees commence to swarm one or 

 two months before the main honey-flow. They have weaker 

 colonies and weaker swarms. What would be the best plan 

 for producing comb honey and avoid all increase ? 



I would use hive-stands on which I could place two hives 

 close together. In the spring we have only one hive on 

 every stand. The swarms, natural or artificial, are set 

 close to a parent colony (not to that from which the swarm 

 was made, but to one which was swarmed some days before 

 this). When the main flow is beginning, and we have a 

 single hive on a stand, it is a colony which has not swarmed. 

 It can be manipulated according to one of the given plans. 

 If we have a pair of hives on another stand it is a swarm 

 and a parent colony. I would manipulate them in the fol- 

 lowing way : 



We remove both colonies from the stand and set the 

 brood-chamber of that colony, which has the young queen, 

 in the middle of the stand, so it will catch the field-bees of 

 both colonies. In this brood-chamber we will crowd the 

 brood-combs which contain the most brood. If more brood- 

 combs are in this colony we give it to the other colony with 

 the old queen, but without bees. Now we put the section 

 supers on, with or without a queen-excluding honey-board 

 between them and the brood-chamber ; on top of this a 

 board with double wire-screens, as just described, and then 

 the other hive with bees and all. The Colorado canal can 

 be used or not. The field-bees of the upper hive will enter 

 the lower hive. The next, or a few days afterwards, we 

 kill or remove the old queen from the upper hive, and now 

 the colonies are in the same condition as in the other plans, 

 and the young bees are united with the main colony in one 

 of the given ways. 



Eighth Plan. — Before I close I will mention the plan 

 by which the bee-keepers of Colorado try to get rid of foul 

 brood. When the honey-flow commences, the bees are shaken 

 into an empty hive and treated on the McEvoy plan. All 

 the brood-combs are given to another colony (a weak one 

 will do), and here they are storified from several colonies 

 as high as a man can reach. Twenty-one days afterwards 

 all the brood has hatched, and now this colony, too, is 

 brushed or shaken from the combs, the honey is extracted, 

 and if the fumigating of these empty combs with formalin 

 gas will prove to kill the spores of the foul-brood bacillus, 

 we will have a true remedy for this pest. But do not forget 

 that all the operations must be done very carefully. 



Ninth Plan. — If the colonies are in pairs close together 

 when the honey-flow commences, we may unite them for 

 comb-honey production and secure a good crop, even if they 

 are not very strong. The queen of one colony is removed, 

 killed or kept with one brood-frame and adhering bees in a 

 nucleus. Now the bees of both colonies are brushed and 

 shaken into an empty hive on the old stand, as described, 

 and the brood-combs manipulated in the same way. 



L. Stachelhausen. 

 (To be coatidned. 



Queenle Jeanette is the title of a pretty song in sheet 

 music size, written by J. C. Wallenmeyer, a musical bee- 

 keeper. The regular price is 40 cents, but to close out the 

 copies we have left, we will mail them at 20 cents each, as 

 long as they last. 



