154 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



Upon reading- the foregfoing-, I looked 

 up the Miller "put-up" plan, and it 

 does resemble the Sibbald plan in 

 some respects, notably that of putting- 

 the old queen and the brood upon a 

 new stand until the queen cells are 

 destroyed. Perhaps I better publish 

 the plan, entire. Here it is: — 



"When a swarm issues and returns, 

 it is ready for treatment immediatel}^ 

 although usually it is put down in m3' 

 memorandum of work to be done, and 

 the time set for it may be the next da3' 

 or any time within five days, just as 

 suits my convenience, as the queen is 

 caged at the time of swarming, and left 

 in the care of the bees. 



Within five days, I take oi¥ the super, 

 and put most of the brood-combs into 

 an empty hive. Indeed, I may take all 

 the brood-combs, for I want in tliis 

 hive all the combs the colony should 

 have. In the hive left on the stand, I 

 leave or put from one to three frames, 

 general!}' two. These combs must be 

 sure to have no queen cells, and ma}' 

 be most safely taken from a j'oung or 

 weak colony having no incliuc^tion to 

 swarm. The two combs are put in 

 one side of the hive, two or three dum- 

 mies placed beside them, and the rest 

 of the hive left vacant. 



The question ma}' be asked, "Will 

 not the bees build comb in this vacant 

 part of the hive?" No; at least they 

 do not for me. Oueenless colonies are 

 little g-iven to comb-building, and not at 

 all inclined to make a fresh start in a 

 new place. 



If I did not do so at the time of tak- 

 ing out the frames, I now shake the 

 bees off from about half t'M frames, 

 not being particular to shake them oft" 

 clean. These bees areof course shaken 

 off into the hive on the stand. The 

 supers are now put on the hive with its 

 two or three frames of brood, the cover 

 is put over the super, and the "put-up" 

 hive filled with brood is placed over 

 all. 



A plenty of bees will be left to care 

 for the brood, the queen will commence 

 laying, all thought of swarming is given 

 up, and ever}' queen-cell torn down by 

 the bees. In perhaps two days I take 

 a peep to see if the queen is laying, 

 for it sometimes happens that at the 

 time when I "put up the queen" (as I 

 call the operation I have just described), 

 there is already a young queen jnst 

 hatched, and then the old queen is 

 pretty sure to be destroyed. In this 



latter case I may remove the young 

 queen and give them a laying one, or I 

 may let the young queen remain. 



In ten days from the time the swarm 

 issued — sometimes ten days from the 

 time I "put up the queen" — I put down 

 the queen. If, by chance, a young 

 queen is in the upper hive, I do not 

 like to put her down until she com- 

 mences laying- and her wing is clipped, 

 for fear of her taking out a swarm. It 

 seems a foolish operation tor them to 

 swarm when there is nothing in the 

 hive from which a queen can be reared, 

 but I have had it happen. The opera- 

 tion of putting down is very simple. I 

 lift the hive off the top, place it on the 

 ground, remove the supers, take the 

 hive off the stand, place it on one side, 

 put the hive containing the queen on 

 the stand, and replace the supers. 



You will see that this leaves the 

 queen full chance to lay from the 

 minute she is uncaged, and at the time 

 of putting down there will be as much 

 brood as if the queen had remained in 

 her usual place. Most of the bees, of 

 course, adhered to the lower hive when 

 the queen was put up, but by the time 

 she is put down quite a force has 

 hatched out, and these have marked 

 the upper hive as their location. Upon 

 this being taken away, the bees, as 

 they return from the field, will settle 

 upon the cover, where their hive was, 

 and form a cluster there; finally an ex- 

 plorer will crawl down to the entrance 

 of the hive below, and a line of march 

 in that direction has been established . 

 immediately. In a day or two they 

 will g-o straight to the proper entrance. 



I may add that the doctor either 

 shakes the bees from the two combs 

 that had been left on the old stand, 

 and returns them to their old location, 

 or to any nucleus that needs them, or 

 else he g-ives them a new stand and 

 allows them to build up into a colony. 



The Sibbald plan has for its object 

 that of forestalling swarming, in order 

 that out-apiaries may be managed by 

 periodical visits, while the Miller plan 

 is simply a treatment to allow swarm- 

 ing, yet prevent increase, but the two 

 plans do resemble each other in that 

 the queen and brood are placed upon a 

 new stand until the queen cells are 

 destroyed. Sibbald puts one comb of 

 brood with queen cells upon the old 



