TKU mimmmiCRM be® JOItlRNSLr, 



89 



weather is warm, I shake a part of 

 them oft' in front of the hive, before 

 putting the combs in the box. If few 

 bees, or cool weather, I put all in the 

 box, setting the box in the shade, and 

 a rod or so from the hive, as soon as 

 all of the frames of brood and bees on 

 them are in the box. I now put the 

 frames brought from the shop into the 

 hive, and re-arrange it, bj- which time 

 the swarm will return if the queen has 

 a clipped wing. If the queen is not so 

 clipped, then the swarm is to be hived 

 in this iirepared hive on the old stand, 

 the same as any swarm is hived. I 

 next put the combs of brood and bees 

 which are in the box, in a hive where 

 I wish the colony to stand, and adjust 

 the entrance to suit their wants, when 

 they are left till the next morning. By 

 this time nearly' all of the old or field 

 bees have gone back to their old loca- 

 tion, so that the joung bees which re- 

 main are ready to accept of anj-thing 

 in the shai)e of a queen. 



I now go to my queen-nursery and 

 select such a young vii'gin queen as I 

 wish them to have, place her in a wire- 

 cloth cage, and take her to this hive. 

 Upon opening the hive, I take out one 

 of the central combs, holding the same 

 up before me. As the bees are all 

 young bees, the}- will at once take to 

 tilling themselves with honey, and 

 while they are so doing, I let the queen 

 run on the comb where there are a 

 few cells of honey not occupied with 

 other bees eating out of them, when 

 the queen will commence to fill herself 

 the same as she sees the others doing. 

 The frame is now lowered down into 

 the hive, and the hive closed. In this 

 way the queen and bees appear natural, 

 and 1 have yet to lose the first queen 

 put in under such circumstances. As 

 the colony now find that they have a 

 queen, they proceed at once to destroy 

 all of the queen-cells, so that no after- 

 swarms ever issue, at least an experi- 

 ence covering a period of six years 

 says that none do. In the above two 

 plans we have something very near 

 perfection, if not quite so. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



MANAGEMENT. 



Hives, Supers, Hiving Swarms, 

 Bee-Cellars, etc. 



Written, fur the American BccJrnimal 



BY GEO. H. KIRKPATRICK. 



I began bee-keeping in 1881. My 

 first hive was a good 10-frame Lang- 

 etroth, and though I have made a 

 great many experiments with diflerent 

 styles of hives, I have always held to 

 the Langstroth frame, and I expect to 

 do so until I am sure that I have found 



something better ; but I do not expect 

 to ever see a better one. 



The hive I liave decided to use ex- 

 clusive of all otiicrs, is a plain, simple 

 bo.x, 13jx20} inches, outside dimen- 

 sions (made of J-inch lumber), cut 

 square on the top and bottom, and re- 

 ceives 8 Langstroth frames. The bot- 

 tom-board of this hive is made of i- 

 inch lumber. To make it secure, I 

 tack on a strip |x2 inches, and make 

 a i-inoh groove in it | of an inch from 

 the top etlge ; with this strip I make a 

 frame around the bottom, and insert 

 the ends of the bottom-boards into the 

 groove, which makes it solid ; and it is 

 also reversible, one side having a |- 

 inch bee-space, which makes it just 

 right to set the brood-chamber on in 

 the summer ; while the other side has 

 a IJ-inch space — this side I prefer to 

 turn upwards in winter. It gives more 

 space for the dead bees to drop in, and 

 one can, with a wire hook, drag them 

 out at the entrance without touching 

 the bottoms of the frames, and anuoj-- 

 ing the colonj-. 



The supers are of the same dimen- 

 sions as the hive, and can be tiered up 

 to any desired height, the only differ- 

 ence being in the thickness of the 

 lumber. The ends are made of |-inch 

 lumber, and the sides of |-inch. This 

 leaves the super just 12 inches wide — 

 the right width to receive 28 sections, 

 4Jx4}, and 7-to-the-foot, and can be 

 used with or without separators. 



The cover is made of a |-inch board 

 cut 16 inches wide and 24 inches long, 

 and well cleated at each end. I use a 

 wood-zinc break-jo'ut queen-excluding 

 honey-board, and without it the hive 

 would be incomplete. 



Springs Mana;;enient of Bees. 



I make a special effort in the spring 

 to get each colony strong, so as to 

 have the hives fairly boiling over with 

 bees at tlic beginning of the expected 

 hone}' harvest. It is with these strong 

 colonies that we get the large surplus, 

 and without them our crop of honey 

 would be small, and our pockets 

 empty. It is the strong, populous col- 

 onies that fill the sections with nice, 

 white honey, and leave oft' the propolis. 

 This gives the honey a tasty appear- 

 ance, and makes it ready for sale at a 

 fair price. 



Increase of Colonies. 



I prefer to make my increase of col- 

 nies by natural swarming. I want 

 large ones, and early. It may be 

 stated, as a rule, tliat a colony of bees 

 dividing up its forces by swarming, 

 will not produce as large a surplus as 

 a colony under the same condition, 

 that does not swarm. Be this as it 

 may, I prefer the swarm. 



iVIctliod of- Ilivins: Strarms. 



I arrange a number of brood-cham- 

 bers with about 6 brood-combs, and 

 when a swarm issues, it is hived in one 

 of the prepared brood-cliambers on 

 the old stand. The parent colony is 

 then placed on a new stand, and the 

 surplus taken off and placed on the 

 newly-prepared one. A wood-zinc 

 queen-excluding honey-board is placed 

 on the brood-chamber, and the super 

 placed over it. The transfer is usually 

 made while the bees are in the air, or 

 it may be done within 24 hours. 



If increase is desired, I work the 

 parent colony for exti'acted honey the 

 remainder of the season ; if increase is 

 not desired, I shake the bees from the 

 combs in the parent colony in front of 

 the newly-hived swarm. I then have 

 all the bees that the old hive contained 

 in the one just right for comb honey. 

 The brood taken away is placed over a 

 colony capable of taking care of it, 

 and is used for starting nuclei, and 

 hatching out the queen-cells that the 

 combs contain. If they are choice 

 stock, valuable queens can be reared 

 in this way, and should be saved. 



Cellar for 'Wintering Bees. 



If I were to winter bees on the sum- 

 mer stands, I would by all means use 

 chaft' hives, as they are the very best for 

 out-door wintering. But if one keeps 

 as many as 40 colonies, or more, it 

 will pay to build a cellar. The difler- 

 ence in the cost of 40 chafl' hives and 

 40 single-walled ones, will amount to 

 about 160 ; and that amount will pay 

 for the material to build a cellar, such 

 as I have. 



My cellar is 12x18 feet, and built as 

 follows : I first dug a hole 2 feet deep, 

 then built a wall 6 inches high all 

 around the cellar, and on this I placed 

 the sills. I then set up the studding, 

 which was 7 feet in length. I weather- 

 boarded it with pitch-pine lumber, and 

 then cemented it on the outside, and 

 banked the earth up to a height of 6 

 feet. I used 6-inch joist, and cleated 

 it overhead. I then filled in between 

 the joist with sawdust, and laid on a 

 tight floor. 



1 then extended the building 7J feet 

 higher. In the upper story I have a 

 real neat little shop, just the place for 

 nailing up hives and supers, and, in 

 short.lust the place to prepare every 

 thing needed in the apiary. 



The cellar is ventilated by a chim- 

 ney built from the cellar, and ex- 

 tended up through, the shop. I also 

 have a 6-inch tile running from the 

 cellar out thiough the bank. This tile 

 I keep filled with flax-tow, except when 

 the cellar gets too warm, then I draw 

 it out, or put it in loosely, so that the 

 air will pass through it. 



