THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



197 



ready, as we should, this will be all 

 there is to do this trip. 



PUT "bait sections" in the corners 



OF the supers. 



The first supers we select for these 

 old colonies are arranged with one 

 section of drawn comb in each corner, 

 the rest of the sections being filled 

 with full sheets of foundation. These 

 combs at the corners start the bees to 

 work the corners Jirsl and that means 

 that they will work the sections alto- 

 gether, thus causing all the sections 

 to be sealed at nearly the same time. 

 The usual way of putting one bait- 

 comb in the center, causes this part 

 of the super to be finished, sealed, and, 

 perhaps, travel-stained, before the 

 outside sections are sealed, and ready 

 to come off. With our super arranged 

 with drawn combs in the comers, and 

 full sheets of foundation in the balance 

 of the sections, and with the blanket 

 of bees we get with these two fence 

 separators between the super and out- 

 side row of sections, (Pettit idea) we 

 have practically put our outside rows 

 in the center, as they are all finished 

 ai the same time, before there is a 

 particle of travel-stain, thus doing 

 away with the only objection there is 

 to leaving the super on until all the 

 sections are finished. 



At our second weekly visit there 

 will not be very much to do. The 

 season has been open only three or 

 four days, and it is likely that the 

 honey-flow has been slow thus far. A 

 few more colonies are strong enough 

 to need a super; then there are always 

 a few colonies that think the first 

 thing to do, as soon as the honey sea- 

 son opens, is to swarm; so we will 

 look through the strong colonies for 

 any indications of swarming. We 

 can tell, by the entrance indications, 

 nearly all that are making prepara- 

 tions to swarm. There will be a few 

 we will be undecided about, and we 



will look into perhtips, from one-fourth 

 to one-third of the colonies. 



EXTERNAL INDICATIONS OF CELL 

 BUILDING. 



How entrance indications enable us 

 to select those that are making pre- 

 parations to swarm is a little difficult 

 to explain. In the first place, we use 

 large entrances during the honey-flow, 

 about 34 X 14 V inches, and with the 

 amount of super-room given, there is 

 hardly ever any hanging out. The 

 heat of the day is the best time of the 

 day to read these indications. We 

 will go down through this south row, 

 and watch the entrances a moment. 

 These first three, here on this row, 

 are working with a vim that shows 

 very clearly that there is nothing on 

 their minds except the storing of all 

 the honey they can. Notice them 

 closel3^ There are no robbers to 

 bother them now, so there are no 

 guards on duty, and it seems as 

 though every bee was trying to see 

 how quickly it could run in after 

 alighting. And when they come out, 

 it is the same "hurrah boys." They 

 hardly stop running out before they 

 take wing, and are off. Does anyone 

 think they will swarm during the 

 next six days? I guess not. So, all 

 we do is to see to the super-room, and 

 pass on to the next. At the fourth 

 one, things appear dift'erent. We 

 don't find quite the energy that the 

 others had. The bees do more stand- 

 ing around at the entrance; then there 

 are a dozen or two fanning, showing 

 that the swarming-fever is keeping a 

 good many workers at home. These, 

 with the amount of young bees that 

 are hatching at this season, make 

 them feel crowded and warm. We 

 think they are making preparations to 

 swarm. We raise the cover. What 

 do we find? Just what we expected. 

 Every bee-space and empty section is 

 full of clustering bees; that swarming- 

 fever clustering we all know so well — 



