THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



211 



the hatchinj,^ brood as soon as any 

 slackening' is noticed in the work. 



Hakky Lathrop. 



I am well-aware that an eig^ht-frame 

 Langstroth hive can be used for hiving 

 swarms when working for comb 

 honej% and quite satisfactory results 

 secured without any contraction of the 

 brood nest, but the white honej' that 

 would go into the two or three outside 

 combs goes into the sections when the 

 space that they would occupy' is filled 

 with "dummies." Bees may not do 

 quite as well over "dummies" as over 

 brood-combs, but there will be more 

 honej' go into the sections whendummies 

 are used, then if the swarm is given the 

 whole space of eight combs. There will 

 be more brood and honey in the brood 

 nest if no dummies are used, and little, 

 if any, feeding- or preparation will be 

 needed for winter, while the use of 

 only five Langstroth combs in the brood 

 nest will necessitate feeding, or the 

 uniting of colonies, unless there is a 

 fall flow. As Mr. Lathrop says, con- 

 tracting an eight-frame hive, brings in 

 "lixing-s, " and takes time; and the 

 bee-keeper must consider all of these 

 things in making a decision. 



I would never think of contracting a 

 super instead of the brood nest. Con- 

 traction is practiced to force the white 

 hone3' into the supers, and, to contract 

 the super, and leave the brood-nest full- 

 size, would be a step in the wrong 

 direction, as I look at the matter. 



Another g-ood letter on this subject 

 comes from that old veteran, F. 

 Greiner, of N. Y. Here it is: 



Naples, N. Y., June 25, 1905. 



Mr. Editor Review: — The system of 

 comb-honey production, as spoken of 

 in your last editorials, is all right. 

 You had a good honej' location, or your 

 colonies would not have stored three 

 supers full of section-honey. In many 

 other localities two supers would be 

 all that could be depended upon, at 

 the most, from clover and basswood. 

 The hiving or shaking- of swarms, giv- 

 ing them a ver3' much contracted brood- 

 chamber, will frequently produce 

 swarming-out, no matter whether the 



hive is filled with combs, foundation, 

 or only frames with starters. The 

 safer way is to give a large brood- 

 chamber and contract after four or five 

 days. 



The uniting of the shaken and new 

 swarms at the end of the season is not 

 necessary in a location with a fall fiovv, 

 unless we wish to obtain a good sur- 

 plus from this. If we desire to in- 

 crease, it will be just as well to give 

 each colony the full number of combs 

 at the end of the white honey harvest. 

 Thus we will have good heavy swarms 

 in every hive by winter. If more in- 

 crease is desired, all mother-colonies 

 may be divided at or about the time 

 the young queens are emerging. IDach 

 half is given combs to fill their hives. 

 I have often treated my late swarmers 

 this way, in times gone by, and had 

 g-ood colonies to go into winter. 



F. Gkeiner. 



Of course, there were many points 

 that I did not touch upon in the outline 

 that I g-ave, and the trouble that may 

 arise from swarms swarming-out is one 

 of them. I soon learned that if I 

 wished no trouble from this source, I 

 must give a full-sized brood nest for 

 three or four da3's, until the fever had 

 worn off and the bees had settled 

 down to business, when the contrac- 

 tion might be made as severe as was 

 desired. 



«'«rf«^^^.'UW*» 



hilroducing Queens With Tobacco Smoke. 



Mr. W. G. Secor, of Greenfield, 111., 

 writes as follov^'s: 



"On page 175 of June Review 3^ou tell 

 of your success in introducing- queens 

 with tobacco smoke. I wish that 3-ou 

 had told all about it. You say 'in the 

 spring,' was it during fruit bloom? 

 Or was it when no honey was coming 

 in ? You sa3' the work was done at 

 dusk; I would like to know when 3'ou 

 made the colony queenless; was it that 

 same afternoon ? I would like to in- 

 troduce a dozen or more in September, 

 but I have spent more than $50 for dol- 

 lar queens, and lost lots of them in 

 trying to introduce them, and it takes 

 the sand out of a fellow After making 

 the colon3' queenless, would vou run 

 in the queen w'th the escort, or just 

 the queen alone ? Do you think that 

 the work can be done in the fall as well 

 as in the spring ?" 



