THE BEE-I'EEPERS' REVIEW 



153 



with starters and contains little or no 

 brood — a second requisite of non- 

 swarming", and a colony that, to all in- 

 tents and purposes, has swarmed — a 

 third requisite of non-swarming-. Be- 

 sides, the hive with the super is in the 

 best possible condition for a crop of 

 fancy comb lioney, providing- the fore- 

 g-oing- manipulations are performed at 

 the proper time, and the hive with the 

 old queen is in fair shape to g-ather a 

 verj' satisfactory crop of extracted 

 honey, provided the honey flow con- 

 tinues long: enoug-h for it to rear the 

 worker bees, with no likelihood of 

 swarming-, because the season there- 

 fore will have passed before it attains 

 to suflicient strength. 



If no increase is desired, when the 

 colony on the old stand is prepared for 

 comb hone.v work, move the colon}' 

 with the old queen on the opposite side 

 of the colon}' on the old stand, with the 

 entrance as near as possible thereto 

 and facing- in the same direction and 

 in one week return it to its orig-inal 

 position on the now opposite side of 

 the hive, and repeat this moving- to op- 

 posite side and back again weekly 

 through the season to keep the colony 

 with the 3'oung queen at all times well 

 supplied with worker bees. 



Thus we will liave the work of two 

 queens in the comb honey colon}', in- 

 stead of one, resulting in a greatly in- 

 creased production of fancy honey. At 

 the end of the season the old queens 

 may be disposed of to the best ad- 

 vantage of the apiarist and the combs 

 she has occupied may be extracted and 

 stored for the following season's use. 



Commenting upon the foregoing, the 

 editor says the chief objection is that 

 if we wait until the young queen is 

 laying before putting a super on the 

 comb honey colony, half the harvest is 

 passed before the work of storing in 

 the sections will be commenced. 



The ideaof putting theold queen and 

 a part of the brood upon a new stand, 

 and allowing the rearingof a new queen 

 upon the old stand, is employed in the 

 Sibbald, Miller and Hershiser plans, 

 but that is about as far as I can trace 

 the resemblances. Mr. Hershisermakes 

 this division whether the colony is 

 making preparations to swarm or not; 

 Mr. Sibbald waits until queen cells 

 have been started; while Dr. Miller 



waits until the colony has swarmed. 

 As a rule, it is desirable that there 

 be no swarming or division. If a 

 colony will work right along, with no 

 swarming fever, better results are 

 secured, especially here in our short, 

 northern seasons. I have known 

 seasons when not more than half of my 

 colonies swarmed. I have never had 

 more than two-thirds of them swarm. 

 So long as a colony is working along 

 energ-etically, with no thoughts or 

 swarming, we are the gainer to let it 

 alone. Mr. Sibbald's plan, as well as 

 Dr. Miller's, includes that advantage. 

 Mr. Hershiser puts several combs of 

 brood upon the old stand, rears a 

 queen there, and then unites the two 

 divisions, if no increase is desired. 

 Mr. Sibbald leaves only one comb of 

 brood upon the old stand, and that has 

 queen cells upon it, and he does not 

 keep the two divisions separate more 

 than four or five days, simply long 

 enough for the bees of the old colony to 

 destroy the queen cells, and both divis- 

 ions to get rid of the swarming fever, 

 when they are again united. 



DR. MILLER'S "PUT UP" PLAN. 



In What Respect it Resembles the Sibbald 

 Non-Swarming System. 



Mr. A. E. Dixon, of Point Loma, 

 California, in writing me says "The 

 Sibbald method is practically the same 

 as that described by Dr. Miller as the 

 'put up' plan. You will find it on 

 page 163 of 'Forty Years Among the 

 Bees.' The only difiference is that the 

 doctor, having clipped queens, waits 

 until the swarm has issued and re- 

 turned, before beginning the manipu- 

 lations, vvhile Mr. Sibbald heads off 

 swarming by doing the work when he 

 finds queen cells. I use practically the 

 Miller 'put up' plan, except that I an- 

 ticipate swarming, the same as Mr. 

 Sibbald does." 



