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truth of the statement, that the time 

 lost to the bees in rearing a qneen in 

 natural swarming was equivalent to a 

 swarm of beees, is the first reason that 

 the plan has not been a success with 

 me. If it were bees that I was after, 

 the case would be different. Here the 

 white clover yields only enough to 

 keep the bees breeding nicely, and 

 prepares them so that they mainly 

 swarm from June 20 to July 1. Our 

 honey harvest is principally from bass- 

 wood, which blossoms from July 5 to 

 the 16th. 



Now all who are familiar with nat- 

 ural swarming, know that tlie bees are 

 comparative!}' few in numbers in the 

 spring, and increase by the rapidly-in- 

 creasing brood produced by the queen, 

 which in due time hatch into bees, un- 

 til a swarm is the result. By giving a 

 laying queen to a colony immediately 

 after it has cast a swarm, we bring 

 about the same result (swarming) as 

 before, or we place the bees in the 

 same condition. The only diiferenoe 

 is, that having plenty of brood, they 

 build up, quicker and are prepared to 

 swarm in a shorter time. 



As this second swarming brought 

 about by giving a laying queen, comes 

 right in our basswood honey harvest, 

 it cuts off the surplus honey ; for it is 

 well known that bees having the 

 swarming fever do little or no work in 

 the sections, and if allowed to swarm, 

 the object we have sought after (honey) 

 is beyond our reach. 



Having given my experience on this 

 point, let us see how the same colony 

 would work had we not given the bees 

 a laying queen. 



Eight days after the swarm has 

 issued, the first young queen will have 

 emerged from her cell, as a rule, when 

 the apiarist should remove all of the 

 other queen-cells from the hive, so that 

 second swarming is entirely prevented. 

 In ten days more the young queen is 

 ready to lay, which is about the time 

 basswood begins to yield honey largely. 

 During this period, between tlie time 

 the swarm issued and the young queen 

 commences to lay, the bees, not having 

 any brood to nurse for the last half of 

 the time, consume but little honey ; 

 hence, as fast as young bees emerge 

 from the cells, they are tilled with 

 honey ; for bees not having a laying 

 queen or unsealed brood, seldom build 

 comb in the sections. Thus, when the 

 young queen is ready to lay, she finds 

 every available cell stored with honey. 



At this point the instinct of the bees 

 teaches them that they must have 

 brood, or they will soon cease to exist 

 as a colony, and a general rush is 

 made for the sections. The honey 

 from below is carried above, so as to 

 give the queen room, and in a week 

 we have as a result, the sections nearly 



filled with honey. I have had such 

 colonies fill and complete sections of 

 honey to the amount of 60 pounds in 

 from eight to twelve days, while those 

 to which I had given the laying queen 

 immediately after swarming, did little 

 but swarm during the same time. 



Bear in mind that we are talking 

 about producing comb honey, not ex- 

 tracted. Different localities may give 

 different results ; still, I think that 

 nearly all localities give a large flow of 

 honey at a certain period during the 

 season, rather than a steady, continu- 

 ous honey harvest the whole summer. 

 To such places these remarks are ap- 

 plicable. 



My second reason is, that after bass- 

 wood we have a honey-dearth, hence 

 the bees from the introduced queen 

 are of no value, but on the contrary 

 become consumers. On an average, it 

 takes 21 days from the time the egg is 

 laid to the perfect bee. Then if the 

 colony is in a normal condition, this 

 bee does not commence labor in tlie 

 field until 16 days old ; hence, the eggs 

 for the honey-gathering bees must be 

 deposited in the cell 37 days before 

 the honey harvest ends, or else they 

 are of no value as honey-producers. 



As the basswood is all gone before 

 the eggs of the introduced queen be- 

 come honey-producing bees, and as 

 the larger part of them die of old age 

 befoi'e buckwheat and fall flowers yield 

 honey, it will be seen that a great gain 

 is made by letting each old colony 

 having cast a swarm, rear its own 

 queen ; for thereby we save the expen- 

 sive feeding of the larvae, which are to 

 become expensive consumers of the 

 honey of the hive. Also the chances 

 are that, when the colony rears its 

 own queen, it will be stocked with 

 younger bees for wintering in Novem- 

 ber, than where a queen was intro- 

 duced immediately after swarming. 



The one point wortli knowing above 

 all others in bee-keeping, is a thorough 

 knowledge of the location we are in, 

 as to its honey-resorces, and then get- 

 ting the largest amount of bees pos- 

 sible at that or those times to gather 

 the honey, having just as few at all 

 other times as is consistent with the 

 accomplishing of this object. In work- 

 ing so that we get the bees out of sea- 

 son, we have to pay the same price for 

 them that we would to get them so that 

 each one becomes a producer instead 

 of a consumer. 



If all who read this article will study 

 their location, and then rear their bees 

 in reference to that location, I think 

 that they will find that their bees will 

 do as well as those of their more suc- 

 cessful neighbors. We often hear it 

 said that one colony in an apiary did 

 much better than the rest, and had 

 they all done as well, a large crop of 



honey would have been the result. 

 The reason that that one colony did so 

 well, was because it happened to have 

 a large proportion of its bees of the 

 right age to gather honey just in the 

 lioney harvest, and if we can get all in 

 this condition, we can secure a like 

 result from the whole apiary. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



HONEY-BOARDS. 



Answer to Questions about Sec- 

 tion-Cases and Honey-Boards. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY JAMES HEDDON. 



I am requested by the Editor to re- 

 ply to the following letter from a new 

 subscriber to the American Bee .Jour-. 

 NAL, at Davenport, Iowa : 



I had 10 colonies of bees last spring, and 

 they increased to 24, partly by natural 

 swarming. I shall have about 800 pounds 

 of nice comb honey from 30 colonies, hav- 

 ing sold the other 4. What is the best way 

 to get bees out of crates, after they are 

 taken from the hives ? Is it necessary to 

 use honey-boards between supers and brood- 

 frames ? If so, will you describe one made 

 of wood, and the one mostly in use ? Is it 

 better, at this season, to put a wide frame 

 with sections at the side of the brood-nest, 

 than to put on another crate ? 



The bee-keeper is away behind the 

 times at present, who does not get the 

 bees all out of his supers before he 

 takes them from the hive ; but to an- 

 swer your question precisely as j'ou 

 ask it, I will say, carry the " crate," 

 or more properly, storing-case, to a 

 screen-house, or some place so pre- 

 pared that bees can exit but cannot or 

 will not enter. (Crates are to ship 

 honey to market in, so let us call them 

 shipping-crates. The storing-cases that 

 are used on the hives, let us call 

 " cases," not racks or crates, but stor- 

 ing-cases, or cases. Let us call brood- 

 frames, brood-frames, and then when 

 we want to use the word " rack " we 

 can use it propei-ly by applying it to 

 that large, coarse frame which liolds 

 upon the wagon the hay or straw, 

 upon which we ship 30 or 40 colonies 

 of bees to an out apiary, or some other 

 location, being drawn bj- horses.) 

 There are two or three different plans 

 which have been described in former 

 issues of this paper, all of which work 

 perfectly. 



Yes, the bees will leave j-our supers 

 even when producing extracted honey, 

 provided there is no brood in them, 

 and there will not be, if you use the 

 queen-excluding honey-board, or if you 

 take them off so late that the brood is 

 all hatched out. With the use of a 

 good honey-board, not excluding, 

 there is little danger of bi-ood in comb- 

 honey cases. 



