1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



151 



brood to tlie remaining one. To this 

 now very strong colony I will give a 

 young laying queen hoping thereby 

 to prevent further swarms from that 

 colony and be enabled to procure a 

 larger surplus from this strong colony 

 than I would have, had I allowed the 

 two weaker colonies to remain. 



It is supposable that at least one of 

 the strong colonies will cast a swarm, 

 to be hived on the old stand, and in 

 the parent colony be used to replace 

 the one lost in the first manipulation. 



Farther increase I will have to pre- 

 vent by "running" them back 24 

 hours after they have issued, or by 

 exchanging queens as per your arti- 

 cle in a late issue of the A. B. K. 



Will taking the combs containing 

 the queens and exchanging do, or 

 should the queens have to be caught 

 and caged ? 



Easton, Pa. Wyneta. 



[Your method should work all right. 

 It is always necessary to have strong 

 colonies to produce comb honey. 

 And your method should certainly 

 make a strong colony. I suppose you 

 aim to give all the brood to the colo- 

 ny 3'ou move to a new location, and 

 give the united colony either empty 

 frames or frames with foundation. If 

 you give them drawn combs, you will 

 retard their work in the sections, 

 therefore it would be best to give 

 them either empty frames or frames 

 filled with foundation. It would be 

 well enough to give the united colony 

 one frame filled with comb, to give 

 the queen an opportunity to deposit 

 eggs at once. It will be necessary to 

 give this strong colony a young 

 queen, as an old queen will be sure to 

 make preparations for swarming. Of 



course if you make this manipulation 

 at about the time when honey is to be 

 had, you should put on your super at 

 once, having the sections filled with 

 foundation, so the bees will go into 

 the sections at once. 



This changing of queens I have 

 practiced only on colonies that were 

 determined to swarm, colonies that 

 were really not strong enough to think 

 of swarming. Also on colonies that 

 were determined to swarm out of sea- 

 son, at times when it was not desir- 

 able to have swarms. How this would 

 work during the swarming season, on 

 colonies that are in good shape to 

 swarm, I am as yet unable to say. 



Yes Sir ! it would be necessary to 

 cage the queens just the same as 

 though you were introducing a queen 

 you had just received by mail, To 

 exchange the queen without caging 

 will almost surely result in the loss of 

 your queens. 



If you should want to run any of 

 your colonies for extracted honey, by 

 extracting often enough and giving 

 room enough you can keep down all 

 swarms. 



Hoping that this is all plain and 

 that you will meet with success, I am, 

 Yours Truly, 



Chas. H. Thies, 

 Steeleville, 111. 



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