THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



As I have had some out-apiaries for 

 about 20 years, I have had occasion to 

 learn how to reduce the labor to a 

 minimum. Wintering, of course, is no 

 problem in my locality. The hives 

 are left in the apiary, just as they are 

 after the honey-harvest, with all the 

 extracting' supers on top of the brood- 

 chamber. This gives the bees plenty 

 room to expand the brood-nest in all 

 dirctions in the spring, and keeps 

 down swarming. 



LARGE HIVES PREVENT SWARMING. 



During the first years of my bee- 

 keeping experience here in Texas, I 

 used 10-frame Langstroth hives (and I 

 use some of them still as brood-cham- 

 bers.) From these hives the bees com- 

 menced to swarm in March, every 

 year. Many times I hived 20 or more 

 swarms per day. Some united, and, 

 having no time to separate them, such 

 swarms are crowded into two or three 

 stories. As soon as the main honey- 

 flow commenced, in May, I had no 

 more trouble with swarms. After I 

 left the extracting supers on the hive 

 in the fall, and during winter, my 

 bees swarmed later and less. I found, 

 by accident, that these large hives 

 prevent swarmintc to a large degree. 

 To avoid the trouble with natural 

 swarms I uspd, at first, another waj'; 

 I simply made my swarms artificially 

 by what is now called shiok-swarm- 

 ing, but at that time (24 years ago) I 

 set the shook-swarm on a new place, 

 and the hive with the brood-combs on 

 the old place. This worked all right, 

 when the swarms were made early in 

 the season. Later, when I used these 

 large hives they prevented swarming 

 entirely in some years — those which 

 were not very favorable for brood-rear- 

 ing in the spring. In other years, 

 when the colonies became very strong, 

 and had many combs occupied with 

 brood, the bees were shaken from the 

 combs, and the well-known plan of 

 making three out of two was used. 



This is still my management for in- 

 crease and prevention of swarming. I 

 have four out-apiaries, and nobody is 

 there to watch for swarms; neverthe- 

 less, I do not think that more than 

 two percent, of the colonies will swarm. 

 These few swarms, of course, are lost. 



MAi-JAGEMENT DURING THE HONEY 

 FLOW. 



At present I work mostly for bulk- 

 comb and extracted honey. In that 

 way, my shallow supers contain 

 three or four old, extracting combs, 

 and, between them, six or seven frames 

 with foundation, which will give the 

 comb honej'. When the honey-flow 

 commences I load a number of so-pre- 

 pared supers on a spring wagon, and 

 drive to an out-yard; giving more 

 supers where thej' are needed, placing 

 them next to the brood-nest, and rais- 

 ing up the half-filled supers already 

 on the hive. At that time every hive 

 has two or three supers, and they are 

 able to hold a large part of the honey- 

 crop. In some of my out-yards I have 

 a small building, in which I can do ex- 

 tracting and some other work, but, 

 generally, we find it more convenient, 

 when the honey crop commences, to 

 take along about 40 or 50 supers, pre- 

 pared to go on the hives, and take as 

 many home, filled with honey, doing 

 the extracting and cutting out of comb- 

 honey at home, where we have a large 

 hone3'-liouse and every thing more con- 

 venient. As soon as we arrive at the 

 out-yard we unload the supers and 

 storify them 10 or 12 high; then we 

 take off the supers full of honey from 

 the hives and give at once as many of 

 the new supers to every hive as we 

 have taken oft' full ones. In taking off 

 supers we smoke down the bees some- 

 what, then lift the supers from the 

 hives and shake the bees out in front 

 of the hive. During a good honey- 

 flow, when the bees are not inclined to 

 rob, we set these supers in piles, 

 crosswise, which causes the few bees 



