50 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



March 



time these last named colonies have 

 their brood nest reversed, by putting 

 those frames having the least brood 

 in them, in the center of the cluster, 

 and those having the most at the 

 outside, thus causing the queen to fill 

 these center combs with eggs as fully, 

 or more so, than were those which 

 were ia the center before; while the 

 brood in those now outside is not al- 

 lowed to decrease at all. Thus quite 

 a gain is made with little danger of 

 chilling any brood. In about a week 

 I take a frame having considerable 

 sealed honey in it, and break the seal- 

 ing to the cells, by passing a knife 

 flat-wise over it; then after spreading 

 the frames apart, place this in the 

 center of the brood-nest. The remov- 

 al of this honey by the bees, causes 

 them to feed the queen more 

 abundantly, and stimulates brood 

 rearing, equally as much, (in my 

 opinion), as any other method of 

 what is called stimulative feeding. 

 If 1 do not have the frames of honey 

 I fill empty combs with sugar syrup, 

 and use the same as frames of honey. 

 As the honey is removed, the queen 

 fills the cells with eggs, and at the 

 end of another week, another frame 

 is added in the same way. The next 

 time over the brood is revised as at 

 first, while at the end of the fourth 

 week, two frames instead of one are 

 placed in the center of the brood 

 nest, this completing the whole of the 

 manipulation along this line , for at 

 the end of another week our frames 

 are all filled with brood from bottom 

 to top. This brings us to near the 

 opening of the white clover, and as 

 soon as any honey comes in from the 

 field, more than enough to care for the 

 brood, the sections are put on. Those 



weaker colonies shut upon the frames 

 having but little brood are left as they 

 are till those frames are well filled with 

 brood, when they are given a frame of 

 honey in the center, and then manipu- 

 lated as were the others, till they are 

 in the same condition. If I wish as 

 many colonies as possible, I begin to 

 take brood from those having their 

 hive full first, and give to the strong- 

 est of the weak ones, and later to the 

 next strongest, till all are built up to 

 strong colonies. I formerly gave these 

 frames of brood to the very weakest 

 first, but after losing several frames 

 of brood I learned that to give a frame 

 of brood to a very weak colony of bees, 

 before settled warm weather, was al- 

 most always sure to result in loss. If 

 I wish honey instead of increase, I 

 work all of the weaker colonies till 

 they have five frames of brood each, 

 when four frames of brood, bees and 

 all, are carried to another and united 

 with it, while the frame having the 

 queen upon it, is placed back in the 

 hive again. The five frames in the 

 hive we wish to unite the four frames 

 of bees with, are spread apart and the 

 four frames placed in each alternate 

 space, so as to prevent quarreling, as 

 bees thus mixed, seldom quarrel or 

 harm a queen. In two weeks this 

 united colony will be as strong as any 

 in the yard, while the frame having 

 the queen can be used for a nucleus, 

 or any other purpose desired by the 

 apiarist. I generally use them for 

 comb building, for they are almost sure 

 to build nice straight worker comb. 

 In places where pollen is scarce, it 

 might be well to feed rye flour or corn 

 meal, early in the season, but as long 

 as plenty of pollen remains in the 

 combs, I do not think it pays, except 



