280 



Gleaniings in Bee Culture 



As you are a carpenter you will likely 

 have no trouble in nailing up the hives for 

 your increase. In buying bees on Hofifman 

 frames we found some of the end-bars had 

 not been nailed on right. The V and. flat 

 edge of the end-bars should be nailed one 

 way only. The illustration on page 278 

 makes this clear. 



You have 25 colonies. As last winter was 

 very hard on bees you will likely lose five of 

 them. Five others may be too weak in 

 numbers of bees to amount to much during 

 the clover flow. This will leave fifteen 

 strong colonies from which to make increase 

 and get a fair crop of honey. At the very 

 first signs that clover is beginning to yield 

 honey, remove the fifteen strong colonies, 

 and in their places put hives containing 

 nine frames with full sheets of foundation, 

 and one comb of brood with the queen from 

 the old colony. Now place a queen exclu- 

 der on top, then an upper story of extract- 

 ing combs; then above this, as a third 

 story, put the old brood nest. The tenth 

 frame of foundation from the lower story 

 can now be put in the third story to replace 

 the brood comb removed. 



When the bees surely have enough room 

 without it, why is the middle story of ex- 

 tracting combs given at this time? I'll tell 

 you, and this is a valuable "kink." We 

 get the finest queen cells imaginable built 

 in the third story. Were we to set this brood 

 nest directly on top of the new swarm, as is 

 customary, but few would build cells; but 

 by isolating them up in the third story, sep- 

 arated from the brood by this story of empty 

 combs, they do not hesitate to build lots of 

 very fine queen cells. 



Eight days after the division is made, the 

 brood and queen cells in the brood nest at 

 the top will be sealed; but as it is somewhat 

 dangerous to handle queen cells at this age, 

 and as we would prefer to have more bees 

 hatch out of this old brood nest before mak- 

 ing the final division, we leave them two 

 days longer. On the tenth day, therefore, 

 prepare as many bottom-boards upon new 

 stands as you have made divisions, and re- 

 move the old brood nests — one to each of 

 these bottom boards. W^hen doing this, tilt 

 up the bodies and look under for queen cells 

 and mark upon the cover the number of 

 frames containing good likely-looking queen 

 cells for future use. There are usually some 

 exceptions to the general rule, so we may 

 expect that once in a great while no cells 

 will be built, even when the brood is isolat- 

 ed, as I have explained. If one or two 

 should be discovered without cells, go to one 

 of the marked ones having frames with cells 

 to spare, and exchange a comb of brood for 

 one containing cells. This is the most 

 simple plan of increase I know of; and any 

 one with a season's experience ought to 

 make a success with this method. 



We will now suppose that you are not 

 quite satisfied with the amount of increase 

 obtained so far, and you want still more 

 bees. All right. Locate five more bottom 

 boards, the same as you did for the first di- 



vision. (I would not do this until the next 

 day after the first division, as this will give 

 the old bees that you carried with your old 

 brood nest to the new stand a chance to go 

 home, so you will not have so many bees to 

 bother you the next day) . Place an empty 

 body on each. Now go to five of your colo- 

 nies marked "cells to spare," and remove a 

 half of their combs containing about half of 

 the brood and bees. One of the queen cells 

 they contain should also go with each new 

 colony. Now you have ten hives, each con- 

 taining five combs of brood, and a good 

 queen cell. Place these fi\ e combs of brood 

 in tbe center of the hives from the five dead 

 colonies I imagined you have, take their 

 empty combs and fill out the empty space 

 in these ten hives, and the work is done. It 

 is all very simple; but be careful not to jar 

 these ten-day-old queen cells too much or 

 they will be spoiled. 



If one has enough drawn combs, more of 

 these brood nests can be divided provided 

 there is a plenty of queen cells (and there 

 usually is). If there is a buckwheat or fall 

 flow these half-brood-nest colonies will usu- 

 ally fill up and have a plenty of stores for 

 winter; otherwise they will have to be fed in 

 the fall. 



Later in the season Mr. Harris' medium- 

 heft colonies will become strong and can be 

 given upper stories for surplus honey. With 

 this plan the colony on the old stand, con- 

 taining the old queen, will do a "land-office 

 business" in gathering honey after remov- 

 ing the brood from the top of their hive. 

 All desire to swarm is taken from them 

 wuth the removal of their brood nest, leav- 

 ing them in that ideal condition so neces- 

 sary forbest results, i. e., free from the swarm- 

 ing fever. 



In the above I have given our latest plan 

 of making up our winter loss at our outyards. 

 We simply go to the yard at the beginning 

 of the clover or raspberry flow, make the 

 first division, and give upper-story room to 

 the rest of the yard for at least ten days, at 

 the end of which time we make another vis- 

 it. At this second trip the brood for our 

 increase, and plenty of cells of the very best 

 kind, are ready. With our previous plans, 

 extra trips had to be made to provide queen 

 cells for this increase. With this better 

 plan, this is avoided; and, furthermore, it 

 costs practically nothing to produce the 

 queens, as the little colonies are so depleted 

 of worker bees which have gone back to the 

 old stand that there is nothing doing to 

 speak of until new workers get old enough 

 for field work, which will be ample time for 

 the queen to mature and get to laying. 



Remus, Mich. 



Five Swarms from One 



Last year my bees commenced to swarm June 23. 

 and five swarms In aU issued from one colony. The 

 first swarm came out three times ; the second one, 

 twice: the third one, once. Can you beat this? 



La Grange, Me. E. A. Day. 



[That is quite a record, to be sure; but. at the 

 same time. It Is rarely a good plan to allow after- 

 swarmlng. If you desire Increase only. It would be 

 better. In most cases, to make It artlflclally.— Ed.) 



