MAY 1, 1913 



303 



continuously, removes her and the field bees 

 from all brood and eggs every ten days (vir- 

 tually the same as swarming), and prevents 

 brood-nests from becoming clogged with 

 honey. The supers remain constantly in 

 the same relative position to the hive en- 

 trance, and the field bees are not interrupt- 

 ed in their daily habit of storing the sur- 

 plus. 



Repeat this operation every ten days 

 through the swarming season, which will 

 vaiy according to locality, or introduce (24 

 hours after switching) a young queen to 

 the top or hatching story. As this story 

 contains young bees only, it is an ideal 

 condition for introducing a new queen. 

 Then kill the old queen the next time j'ou 

 switch, and leave the hatching story on lo 

 hatch out entirely. 



I think that most beekeepers agree that 

 a young queen rarely swarms during her 

 firet season, so you will by this means, 

 as soon as a young queen is introduced, 

 end the danger of swarming in nearly all 

 cases. 



A Pennsylvania friend asks about using 

 a hive filled with foundation and placing it 

 below an old hive in order to get two brood- 

 stories to start the i^lan. I should prefer to 

 divide the old brood-nest as nearly equally 

 as possible, and fill out both stories with 

 frames of full sheets of foundation. 



I like to have both "hatching " and "lay- 

 ing " stories have about an equal amount of 

 brood in them. Also, by dividing the old 

 brood-nest equally there will be enough old 

 combs containing pollen and honey to sup- 

 ply the nurse bees in the hatching story for 

 the ten days they are shut oif from all out- 

 side supply. A sujiply of honey and pollen 

 sufficient for this period of time must al- 

 ways be on hand in hatching story. 



Spokane, Wasli. 



COMB HONEY FROM A SHORT FLOW 



Worker Comb from Starters 



BY A. V. SMALL 



Fig. 3. — Lower side, next to supers. 



Last summer the swarming impulse was 

 above normal ; and as our flow is usually of 

 short duration, comb honey could be se- 

 cured only by a plan that Avould satisfy the 

 swarming desire, and at the same time force 

 the June flow into the supers. 



The plan which gave me the best results 

 was to shake the bees into a contracted 

 chamber of starters. This was done in the 

 early part of the flow. The colony was left 

 on its old stand, and I merely took away 

 the brood, contracted the brood-chamber to 

 the space of six combs, and gave the bees 

 a set of starters. In the colonies treated 

 there was considerable comb in the supers; 

 and in order to establish the brood-nest 

 I placed a frame partly filled with young 

 brood in the center of the contracted brood- 

 chamber, filling out with five frames of 

 starters. This was the first hive tried. 



There was a good flow on the day the 

 work was done, and the bees worked right 

 along as though no change had been made. 

 The queen began laying in the empty cells 

 in the frame of brood I had placed in the 

 center. The bees began to work on the 

 starters, and every thing went well except 

 that I had established the brood-nest, but 

 had not provided the storehouse for pollen. 

 The brood comb that was used had been 

 taken from near the center of the hive, and 

 was almost free from pollen. In the aver- 

 age brood-chamber the two outside combs 

 contain nearly all the pollen in the hive. If 

 the queen is good they are about half filled 

 with brood and the rest is honey. These 

 two outside combs were gone, and the first 

 day's pollen went with the honey up into 

 the sections. 



^ The next colony that built cells I shook, 

 contracted the brood-nest to six frames, leav- 

 ing them their two outside combs and filling 

 in the center with four frames of starters. 

 In this case the pollen storehouse was un- 



