1902 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



Gl 



you have no laying queen, then give 

 them a virgin queen. And if you do not 

 have the virgin, give a ripe queen-cell. 

 If you have neither of the three, they 

 will raise a queen lor themselves; but 

 the queen so reared will come into exis- 

 tence under verj- unfavorable circum- 

 stances, through lack of sufificient bees 

 of all ages to produce the best of 

 queens, and consequently be such an 

 one as will not give the best results. 

 I would not advise dividing bees in any 

 way unless a queen can be given the 

 queenlcss part in the shape of a ripe 

 cell or otherwise. As soon as the queen 

 in the old hive gets to laying, and the 

 bees have occupied the four frames put 

 in from the new hive, this colony is 

 ready for the supers also. 



Colonies can be divided in this way 

 without hunting up the old queen, and 

 giving the new queen or ripe cell to the 

 part which is found (jueenless two days 

 later, but it is much better to leave 

 the old queen on the old stand in the 

 new hive, as the returning bees will 

 make it so that she can keep right on 

 with her egg laying to the best advan- 

 tage. 



The next plan is to proceed with the 

 new hive to the colony to be divided 

 the same as before, but instead of tak- 

 ing out four frames from the new hive, 

 take out only two. Then open the old 

 hive and take out the frame having the 

 queen on it, and another having some 

 honey in it, setting the two in the cen- 

 ter of the new hive, arranging thcf 

 frames as before and closing the hive. 

 Now- lift out four of the frames from 

 the old hive and shake the bees ofif from 

 them down in front of the entrance to 

 the new hive, into which they will im- 

 mediately run. Arrange the combs in 

 the old hive and carry it to a new stand 

 giving queen or ripe cell two days lat- 

 er. 



The third plan is to proceed the same 

 as in the second, except that you are 

 to shake nearly all of the bees ofif the 

 eight combs in the old hive, in front 

 of the new hive, when you are to at- 

 tach a double screen on the bottom of 

 the old hive, the same being made by 

 making a frame out of half-inch stuf? 

 the size of the hive, which frame has 

 common window screen wire-cloth 

 nailed on each side of it. Having the 

 screen attached, remove the covering 

 from the top of some populous colony 

 and set the old hive having the screen 



on its bottom on top of the populoui» 

 colony, covering the lop of this hive as 

 tightly as possible to keep in the heat 

 arising from the colony below. The 

 next day run in a queen or give a ripe 

 cell to the nearly beeless combs, leav- 

 ing the combs and old hive on top of 

 the populous colony five days longer, 

 when it is to be carried to the stand it 

 is to occupy and the screen removed. 

 In this way we get a larger proportion 

 of the bees in the new hive, and thus 

 secure a larger surplus from it. By any 

 division little or no surplus is secured 

 from the old hive, unless the honey 

 flow is greatly prolonged. 



Borodino, N. Y., Feb. 26, 1902. 



Queens in the Supers — Bridge 

 Combs. 



(By M. F. Reeve.) 



IF ANY of the readers of the Bee- 

 Keeper are tempted to discard the 

 zinc honey boards in placing supers 

 either for extracting, or when provided 

 with sections for comb honey in the 

 spring flow, don't let them place too 

 much reliance in the published stories 

 to the effect that queens will not climb 

 into the second story and lay eggs in 

 the cells where there are no boards. 



I am speaking from experience when 

 I say they will just do that particular 

 thing. I have tested the matter pur- 

 posely this spring. I had several supers 

 filled with nicely drawn, half depth 

 comb, left over from last season, which 

 I distributed among nine colonies as 

 soon as the bees began storing. Three 

 suners were left without the honey 

 boards and the others were given that 

 arrangement. 



Did the queens get into the second 

 stories V They did. with neatness and 

 dispatch and in two weeks there was 

 the nicest lot of capped drone cells 

 along with brood and queen cells any- 

 body ever saw. The cappings were 

 nure white, too. not brown. I cut out 

 the riueen cells, shaved ofif the cappings 

 of the drone cells with a very sharp 

 knife and the bees did the rest. Wi.en 

 I examined the half depth frames men- 

 tioned a week later, after honey boards 

 had been placed between the supers and 

 bodies, the drone brood was all gone 

 and the big cells were filled with delic- 



