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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



If you give the food in the day-time, or if 

 all is not taken by the bees long before sun- 

 rise, the bees who find tlie food will fill 

 themselves and give the good news to 

 otliers. Of course some of the workers can 

 imagine that honey is gathered inside the 

 hive. There is honey in the fields they 

 think, then every worker, after having seen 

 the happy bees which have fovnid the food, 

 darts from the hive in search for honey. 

 But tliere is no honey to be found in the 

 fields; nothing but weariness, which is 

 soon fatal to bees wiien tliey work with au 

 empty stomach. If the weather is cold it is 

 worse yet. The bees who leave the hive 

 cannot come back, and are seen motionless, 

 and half dead everywhere around the 

 apiary. 



if you feed the bees in spring, take care 

 to give but little at a time, and for more 

 security, shut up the hives till the agitation 

 caused by the food has subsided, and thus 

 prevent the bees from yielding to tlie ex- 

 citement, flying out of the hive not to 

 return. Soiiietimes, after the food has been 

 regularly distributed for a few days, all the 

 workers know where they Jiave to look for 

 it, and before flying out of the hive they 

 visit the feeder. Then you can feed them 

 in the day-time, without loss. But you can- 

 not be too careful till all your bees have 

 been accustomed to look where the food is 

 distributed; for a great many colonies have 

 been ruined by feeding intended to give 

 them early strength. 



Now I come back to my subject. Besides 

 choosing colonies to raise drones, we also 

 choose these from the bx'ood of which we 

 will raise queen cells. 



As soon as we have a few drones hatch- 

 ing we divide our colonies into two parts, 

 one of these parts, about 75 per cent, of the 

 whole number, is strong enough to give 

 honey. These colonies are left undisturb- 

 ed, at least for the beginning of the season. 

 By swarming these artificially we would 

 diminisii our chances of honey harvesting. 

 By permitting them to swarm naturally, 

 our chances of a good honey crop would be 

 equally lessened. 



To prevent these colonies from swarming 

 we use wide liives. Our non-swarming 

 hives have room for 11 Quinby frames, in- 

 stead of 8; or 15 frames 12x12, instead of 9. 

 Every non-swarming hive is suj^plied with 

 one or two ])artition boards, leaving be- 

 tween them and the side of the hive, room 

 where to put an empty comb. When the 

 honey harvest begins, we look at some of 

 these outside combs every evening. As 

 soon as the bees begin to bring some drops 

 of honey in these combs, we hasten to give 

 all our non-swarming hives empty combs or 

 surplus boxes, or both, to prevent them 

 from getting the swarming fever, and we 

 generally succeed very well. 



The 25 per cent, colonies, too weak to 

 give surplus honey in June, are intended to 

 raise queens and make swarms. To this 

 end we choose the most populous of these 

 weak ones. We take out its queen and all 

 combs containing brood; and brush from 

 these combs every worker. Then we open 

 one of our colonies intended to give brood 

 to raise queens, and we exchange the combs 

 of our weak colony for a similar number of 

 brood combs; taking the same care to brush 

 every bee from them before putting tlieni in 

 our weak colony. These combs having 

 taken the place of those taken out, our 



weak colony being deprived of its queen 

 has no otiier brood but that of a selected 

 queen to raise queens cells with. 



By this method we do not incur the risk 

 of introducing a valuable queen in another 

 colony. This queen continues to lay, and 

 nine days after, we can deprive another of 

 our weak colonies of its queens, change the 

 brood combs of this last colony with those 

 of the selected one, and so on as long as we 

 intend to raise queens. If we have a great 

 many queens to raise we act the same as 

 with one or more selected colonies. By 

 exchanging combs every third day, we have 

 every third day queen 'cells ready for any 

 emergency. Three selected colonies are 

 then used to give tlie brood. 



Nine days after the exchange of combs, 

 our first weak colony has mature queen 

 cells. We open the hive and count them. 

 Suppose their number is 4; we deprive of 

 their queen 3 of our other weak colonies, 

 and the next day we insert a queen cell in 

 every one of them. If something has pre- 

 vented us from taking the queens out on the 

 ninth day, we do it on the morning of the 

 tenth, and give queen cells in the evening, 

 at least 6 hours after the taking out of the 

 queens. 



To insert the queen cells we do not cut 

 the comb, but enlarge the space between 

 two brood combs; we place the cell be- 

 tween them, and by bringing the combs in 

 their place, the cell is held in position. The 

 workers will cover and hatch it as well as 

 if it was inserted in the comb. 



If, instead of Italianizing, we intend to 

 make swarms, we act differently. As soon 

 as our queen cells are ripe, we divide our 

 weak coloniy in as many colonies, or nuclei, 

 as we have brood combs, giving every 

 brood comb a queen cell. Then we divide 

 the bees equally, giving to each a second 

 comb with honey. If we have more queen 

 cells than we have brood combs, we deprive 

 another weak colony of its queen, at least 

 or 8 hours in advance. Then we divide 

 equally tiiat colony in as many nuclei as we 

 have queen cells; dividing also the bees as 

 equally as possible. We shut up these 

 small colonies for 24 hours, then we put 

 every one of them in place; we also move 

 the old hive at night, before its bees are 

 flying. Before opening the entrances of 

 tiiese hives we put in front of every one a 

 small slanting board, so as to interrupt the 

 direct flying of the workers when they 

 leave the hive. The bees seeing something 

 unusual at the exit of the hive are led to ex- 

 aniine the surroundings of their new loca- 

 tion; and the old workers returning to their 

 old place, not finding the old hive, will 

 remember their new location and return to 

 it. 



Now these small swarms have to be ex- 

 amined after about 5 or 6 days, to see if the 

 queens are hatching; and in case some are 

 dead or doubtful, another queen cell can be 

 given, after the one started by the bees in 

 the nuclei has been removed. 



Generally after 12 days the young queens 

 are laying. Then there is no more worker 

 brood hatching. We give to every nucleus 

 a comb of brood taken this time from some 

 of our strongest colonies, as the eggs of 

 bees need about 35 days before becoming 

 outside workers. We do not diminish by 

 this loan the gathering forces of these 

 colonies; as the bees of the brood taken 

 would be too young to profit from the spring 



