THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



151 



SHOOK SWARMING NOT FAVORABLE 

 TO QUEEN REARING. 



I mig-ht add, that, with the "new 

 era" queen rearing^ system, described 

 in the March Review, there is no need 

 of any honey producer of the North 

 buying queens, unless it is breeders, 

 or very early queens; especially as 

 queens sent throug-h the mails are not 

 so good as home-reared ones. 



In working for comb honey, I aim 

 to have supers enough filled with sec- 

 tions, furnished with full sheets of 

 foundation, to hold a little more than 

 an average crop. This is on the same 

 principle as when working for extract- 

 ed honey — the idea is to have supers, 

 or upper stories of combs, to nearly 

 hold the crop, so we can put our 

 whole energy to securing the crop 

 during the honey-tiow. After the 

 season, we have plenty of time to har- 

 vest, and handle the crop; although, 

 of course, the supers of comb honey 

 are taken off as fast as sealed, and 

 stacked up in the honey house. 



ADVANTAGES OF DIVISIBLE BROOD 

 CHAMBERS. 



Our comb honey hives are of the 

 Heddon style, only they have ten 

 frames instead of eight, as in the reg- 

 ular Heddon. The bodies and supers 

 are the same, and are the regular, 

 deep, ten-frame supers, shortened up 

 to Itys inches long, by 14}4 inches 

 wide and 5j4 deep, inside, with flat 

 tins nailed on the bottoms of the ends, 

 the tins projecting in % of an inch, for 

 the frames, or pattern slats to rest on. 

 The brood frames are 16 inches long, 

 5% deep, outside, and are closed-end 

 with ly^ spacing. As the body is 5H 

 inches deep, this leaves the regular 

 >+ inch bee space at the top. To 

 make it into a super, we use seven 

 slats 16x1^ X ;^s inches. These are for 

 the twenty-eight 4x 5x1^8 inch sections 

 to rest on. Ten fence separators are 

 used, which allows two between the 



outside row of sections and the side Of 

 the super. 



One section of this hive is of the 

 same capacity as five Langstroth 

 frames, so that two sections give the 

 same breeding room as a ten-frame 

 Langstroth hive; which is about right 

 for breeding up good sized swarms for 

 the season's work, without the disad- 

 vantage of the large hive later in the 

 season. 



Some of the advantages of the sec- 

 tional brood-nest over the regular 

 Langstroth are, first, that as soon as 

 convenient after setting the bees out 

 of the pit or cellar, I can go over the 

 yard and raise up the hives and look 

 in from the bottom, and from any col- 

 ony that is occupying only one section 

 of the hive, the other section may be 

 taken away, and stored in the honey- 

 house until needed. As the colonies 

 become strong, later in the season, 

 these extra sections are added at the 

 bottom. 



It is known that to tear the Lang- 

 stroth brood-nest to pieces, and confine 

 these puny, little colonies upon a few 

 combs during the spring, with the 

 idea of helping them to breed up faster, 

 is quite liable to be a failure; so much 

 so that many have abandoned it, be- 

 lieving their colonies come out better 

 when left to themselves; our mode of 

 handling weak colonies in the Heddon 

 hive during Spring is as follows: 



In the morning, while it is cool, 

 without removing the cover, and with- 

 smoke or any disturbance, I lift off 

 the top section, which contains most of 

 the bees, brood and honey, while an 

 assistant takes the lower section out 

 of the way. Then the little colony is 

 replaced on the bottom-board, with so 

 little disturbance that it seems to do 

 first rate. With this management I 

 think they breed up faster than if left 

 with both sections. Then, later in 

 the season, some are likely to get 

 strong before the honey season opens, 

 and, for fear they will feel crowded, 



