1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



579 



ed, and it is, therefore, a very good plan. It 

 will be noticed that, in the plan of making 

 two nuclei from the brood of one colony, 

 only half as many colonies need to be dis- 

 turbed to make up the winter loss, and in 

 those which arc disturbed to make up such 

 loss, the colonies left on the old stand con- 

 taining the working force are in about the 

 same condition after the brood is removed, 

 as to the amount of honey that would be 

 stored, as a new swarm would be if hived on 

 the old stand. 



THE ALEXANDER PLAN AS WORKED FOR IN- 

 CREASE. 



In making up winter losses I have advised 

 the use of drawn combs. In making in- 

 crease, frames of wired foundation are used 

 instead. Sometimes it happens that we have 

 both increase and winter loss to make in the 

 same yard, and in such a case a frame of 

 brood containing the queen is placed in a 

 hive containing frames of foundation. A 

 queen-excluder is placed on top of this, and 

 then the brood over the excluder, so that 

 all is on the old stand just as usual. On the 

 eighth day the brood is set off on a new lo- 

 cation, and is used to make up the winter 

 loss as I have explained. 



The difference lies in the fact that no story 

 of extracting-combs is given the colony un- 

 til the foundation has all been drawn out 

 and filled with honey and brood; for, were 

 we to give all the comb room the bees would 

 use above, the foundation would be neglect- 

 ed, and probably there would be no colony 

 at all, so to speak, for the bees might not 

 have more than two frames of the founda- 

 tion drawn out, nearly the whole force of 

 workers being above. In order to avoid 

 having seven-tenths of the hive below un- 

 touched, therefore, see that this foundation 

 is all drawn out before stories of extracting 

 frames are given. 



In the above discussion I have purposely 

 said nothing about a flow of buckwheat hon- 

 ey, having taken into consideration only the 

 white-honey flow of June and the fore part 

 of July. Here at Remus we get some dark 

 honey from the buckwheat and aster. Some 

 of our winter losses in years past have been 

 made up during this flow. While it is some- 

 what cheaper than to do it during the white 

 flow, I am very sure that such colonies are 

 not worth as much as those made earlier, 

 judging from what the bees are able to ac- 

 complish in storing surplus the season fol- 

 lowing; and it seems that these little swarms 

 are a little on the order of late natural 

 swarms, for they do not winter as well, and 

 they are, consequently, not as desirable. 

 We have, therefore, come to the conclusion 

 that, while it costs more to make our in- 

 crease early, it is cheaper in the end, and 

 therefore we try to do that at the present 

 time. 



A practical honey-producer can buy bees 

 of less successful bee-keepers for much less 

 money than he can produce them himself, if 

 he can find any for sale that are in a desir- 

 able condition. Sometimes we find desir- 



able bees, and in such cases we buy them in- 

 stead of trying to make our own increase. 



THE CHAPMAN PLAN OF MAKING INCREASE. 



Mr. S. D. Chapman has a plan somewhat 

 different from these others mentioned. At 

 a period about eight days before the close of 

 the raspberry flow ( it would be the same if 

 the flow were from clover or basswood), he 

 hunts out and kills all his queens with the 

 idea of having only young queens with 

 which to go into winter quarters. In ten 

 days, when the queen-cells that have been 

 started come to maturity, half of the bees 

 and brood, including a good queen-cell, is 

 taken out of as many colonies as desired, 

 and put into empty nives, and then both 

 hives are supplied with empty combs from 

 the colonies that died during the winter. As 

 this is about the middle of July, these half- 

 colonies that will soon contain young queens 

 will build up into good colonies for winter, 

 although they will probably need to be fed 

 quite a quantity for winter stores. The 

 bees have eight aays of the last of the hon- 

 ey-flow in which to build their cells, which 

 insures the best quality of cells. Further- 

 more, at this time it is less expensive in the 

 amount of honey it takes to produce the in- 

 crease ; for when one runs for extracted 

 honey, as Mr. Chapman does, this killing of 

 the queens is not likely to cause any loss of 

 honey; and the smaller amount of brood the 

 bees have to care for may be a gain rather 

 than a loss. Finally, by having young 

 queens take their flight after the season is 

 over, there is less than one per cent of 

 swarms during that time. We have tried 

 this plan and found it to be a good one. 



Mr. E. E. Coveyou, of Petoskey, usually 

 has his own way of doing things, and his 

 method of making up winter loss and work- 

 ing for increase is no exception. When he 

 finds cells being built in any of his colonies 

 preparatory to swarming, the colony is sha- 

 ken into a hive filled with combs or founda- 

 tion.* After the bees and queen have been 

 shaken from the combs, the brood is remov- 

 ed to some weak or moderately strong col- 

 ony, to be taken care of for six or seven 

 days. At the end of this time the brood is 

 placed on a bottom-board beside the before- 

 mentioned medium colony, over which it 

 has been for the previous few days, and both 

 hives are so placed as to get about the same 

 number of flying bees. A new colony will 

 thus be made from the brood. 



If he desires to make two colonies from 

 the brood he divides it and sets the two 

 halves on the old stand so as to catch all of 

 the flying force, the original medium colony 

 of this stand then being moved to some oth- 

 er stand. If there are cells to be saved in 

 the brood, a queen-excluder must be used be- 

 tween the upper story of brood and the me- 

 dium colony before the division. 



If this brood from the shaken swarm had 

 been set on a stand of its own at the time of 

 shaking, much of the unsealed larvae would 



* If one has the foundation, this is the place to use 

 it, for the combs may be used later. 



