JUNE 15, 1912 



the hatching- story; kill the old queen, and 

 force the bees into the supers for the rest 

 of the season. (A laying queen may be 

 kept in each brood story, but one will have 

 (o switch stories as usual or the top story 

 will run out of its supply of honey and 

 ] ollen.) This system separates the queen 

 from all brood every ten days, without 

 stopping- her laying, and without the loss 

 of any brood. 



/"I watch the bee escape to keep it clear 

 for passage of the bees that wish to get out. 

 They go to the fields for honey, come back, 

 and find their storage in the usual place 

 relative to the hive entrance. The field 

 bees and those of age of first flight are the 

 first to go below, and they increase the field 

 force just as wanted. The nurse bees are 

 left with the eggs and larvae, just where 

 they are wanted. They use the honey and 

 pollen stored in the hatching story, which 

 cleans up and makes room for the queen to 

 lay at the next switch. This system sepa- 

 rates the queen from all brood every ten 

 days ^vithout stopping- her from laying, or 

 causing the loss of any brood. 



I put on an old comb, badly clogged with 

 pollen, in the hatching story (for an ex- 

 periment) with the rest of the combs, most- 

 ly new, and with little pollen in them. The 

 bees cleaned the comb in fine shape, and 

 raised all the brood. 



On the tenth day, when I cut out all 

 queen-cells in the hatching story, and put 

 it below, ample room is provided for the 

 queen to lay, and more added daily by those 

 hatching. In fact, the daily hatching in the 

 brood-nest for the ten-day period the queen 

 occupies it will keep her busy a good part 

 of her time. I have no trouble whatever 

 from the bees clogging the brood-nest with 

 honey. So far I have had to feed every 

 fall, as all the honey, or nearly all, goes 

 into supers. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



This system is the finest one I know of to 

 introduce queens. Twenty-four or tliirty- 

 six hours after you switch stories, introduce 

 your new queen to the top story. As this 

 is occu])ied only by young bees, they Avill 

 readily accept her. I have never lost one. 

 If young- queens can be obtained early 

 enough, one can be introduced above, and 

 both Cjueens allowed to lay for a week or 

 two, and then the old one destroyed — that 

 is, I let both lay up to the date that the 

 bees wdll hatch, so as to be of use during 

 the honey-flow. I never use both queens 

 until there are so many bees that they will 

 eat all of the surplus. I did that one year 

 on a colony that promised me 250 pounds. 

 They were so strong all summer that it took 

 two full-sized brood-nests to hold them in 



387 



the fall, and my crop was only about 125 

 pounds. This was a colony from which I 

 had planned to extract in the fall, and had 

 it seven stories high, with bees working in 

 every story. 



Swarming has been eliminated in my 

 apiary entirely. A few minutes per colony 

 once or twice a week, at morning or eve- 

 ning, will be sufficient to handle this plan 

 quite satisfactorily. The screen between 

 supers and top story should allow bees to 

 go down and not up. Several bee escapes 

 should be arranged so as to make egress 

 easy. 



Spokane, Wash. 



AN OUTSIDER IN COLORADO 



BY DR. E. F. PHILLIPS 



Gleanings maintains a department con- 

 ducted by the Colorado State Inspector of 

 Apiaries ; but it may be of interest to men- 

 tion a few points which came to notice dur- 

 ing a recent hurried trip which I had the 

 pleasure of taking through the State. Mr. 

 Foster, who also went wdth me on this trip, 

 naturally sends items which will appeal 

 more especially to the Colorado beekeep- 

 ers; but those outside may desire to get 

 some idea of conditions in the State which 

 he might not think of giving. There are 

 some things which may be mentioned which 

 have such an obvious moral that the reader 

 will possibly conclude that these descrip- 

 tions are being given solely to air personal 

 views. This is not always 'the ease; but the 

 adverse criticism (if it is such) will be ac- 

 cepted gracefully. Anotlier advantage in 

 discussing Colorado beekeeping after a 

 brief visit is that it gives Colorado beekeep- 

 ers, and especially Mr. Foster, such a glo- 

 rious opjiortunity to correct errors which 

 are almost sure to appear. If any such are 

 detected, no person wants to know it more 

 than I ; for naturally some conclusions were 

 necessarily di-awn from small accumula- 

 tions of tlata. 



diseases. 



Since my trip was particularly for the 

 purpose of studying the brood-disease sit- 

 uation it may be as well to say something 

 of that first. American foul brood has been 

 prevalent in Colorado for many years, and 

 is now present in nearly every beekeeping 

 location in the State. In Boulder County, 

 for example, where the beekeepers have had 

 years of experience with the disease they 

 have lost their fear of it, and never allow 

 it to cause much loss. On the western slope, 

 however, where it is seemingly of more re- 

 cent introduction, the beekeepers are not 

 yet so well informed, or perhaps less con- 



