lOOJ 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



177 



eater may he poison \o another, and 

 this Y>artienlar nianipnlation may bring 

 success or disaster in the hands of 

 different operators. I do not Icnow 

 Init that the latter is the view I wonld 

 more readily snpport. as the practice 

 may be a dantrerons pitfall for the 

 novice with his possibly weak colonies 

 and poor queens, whilst conversely, 

 the better the queen the less necessity 

 for artificial brood-si»reading; and as 

 the quality of stock should be carefully 

 improved year by year, and the num- 

 ber of old queens limited, the opera- 

 tion should be theoretically a diminish- 

 ing quantity even in expert hands. 



Precept and practice, however, do 

 not always Avalk hand in hand, and 

 whilst I woidd not indiscriminately 

 preach the spreading of brood, on ac- 

 count of its possible ill effects. I yet 

 considej- that, when intelligently done, 

 there may be undoubted gain. Too of- 

 ten the underlying priuciples of such 

 matters are entirely ignored, and the 

 spreading of brood by a beginner is 

 often practiced haphazard upon the 

 strength of a text-book reference, 

 whereas it is essentially an operation 

 to be labelled. '"Not for the inexperi- 

 enced." I hope to be able to indicate 

 simply some of the conditions neces- 

 sary to siiccess. and thereby, perhaps, 

 point out the danger once again, it 

 lieing understood that I do not wish to 

 dogmatize upon the subject, nor have 

 I much that is new to offer, the for- 

 mation and expression of my own 

 opinion being simply based upon the 

 experiences of o~thers. tried so far as 

 possible, in my own operations. 



First then, the prime object of 

 spreading brood is a rapidly increased 

 brood nest, having in view the open- 

 ing of the honey season, before which 

 date a crowded hive is desired. Foun- 

 dation should never. iiT my opinion, be 

 used for this purpose, as brood is want- 

 ed, not early or cheaply-built combs, 

 and the two ptu-poses must not be con- 

 fused. Every condj so built in spring 

 is built at the expense of the very 

 life of the bees, for though, if abso- 

 lutely necessary owing to shortage, 

 combs may be built in this way, yet 

 the heat necessary for their production 

 is obtained at the expense of the con- 

 sumption of valuable stores which 

 should be used as brood food, whereas 

 the combs can be produced more 

 cheaply later in the year when the 



bees have "'sm-plns heat" at their dis- 

 posal. TcK) often the bees attack the 

 foundation with obvious reluctance, 

 the corners remaining in this state for 

 long, with every incentive to damage 

 or Avarp. Of course they may be work- 

 ed out in this way later in the year, 

 when hone.v is coming in, by such 

 stoclvS as are too Aveak to store much 

 surplus, but they would be better giv- 

 en to swarms, or to special stocks de- 

 voted to the purpose. 



To obtain the best results with 

 spreading brood, full.v-drawn combs 

 free from old pollen should be given. 

 This may save the disappointment of 

 comb cut down, and drone coml) built; 

 but if frames are inserted in the centre 

 of brood nest I would give preference 

 to clean old combs, then to new ones. 

 Queens appear to lay more readily in 

 combs in which brood has already been 

 reared, and I have had cases AA-here a 

 perfectly new cond) on either side of 

 the brood nest has seemed to confine 

 its area until such time as the bees 

 AA'ere forced to expand. 



It is better that the combs should 

 contain stores, as the uncapping and 

 traffic of the honey in the hive has 

 a highly stimulative effect. OAving no 

 doubt to the more frequent feeding of 

 the queen. The oi)eration must, how- 

 ever, depend upon the condition of the 

 season and the hive. It cannot safely 

 be practiced liefo'e permanent warm 

 weather has set in. .fudged by the min- 

 imum temperature of the night. It is 

 also apparent that a AA^ell-packed 

 double-AA'alled liiA^e is more likely to 

 obA'iate chill than one thin and poorly 

 protected. I haA'e sometimes seen 

 brood spread to the extreme outside 

 comb next to a thin single Avall. Avith 

 the inevitalile result that bees on the 

 point of hatching were ruthlessly and 

 AA'antonly exchanged for a feAV eggs, 

 the worst possil>le of such bargains 

 Avith the bees! The age of the queen 

 must also be considered. A young vig- 

 orous queen aaMII proliably rear all the 

 brood advisable. Avhile an old queen 

 may be fairly hustled into doing bet- 

 ter than her own besv. Would it not 

 be better to have all our "honey 

 stocks" headed by just such iine young 

 queens? 



Where small patches of brood are 

 naturally begun upon additional combs, 

 it is perhaps inadvisable to insert a 

 new one. but the l)rood-nest might br 

 left alone, as the step once taken the 



