303 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



August 



and susceptible to the requirements 

 of both the bees and their keeper, is 

 the hive for the practical bee-keeper 

 to adopt. There are several kinds of 

 such hives now in use, and did I 

 have thirty or more colonies in any 

 of the many good hives of the present 

 day, I should hesitate some time be- 

 fore 1 made a change, trying first to 

 see if a thorough knowledge regard- 

 ing their manipulation, and adapting 

 of this to my field would not give suc- 

 cess. If it should prove that the 

 hive was not at all adapted to ray lo- 

 cality, then of course I would make a 

 change, but to change hives every 

 time something new comes along, 

 with the thought that with this hive 

 I shall succeed, is not the proper thing 

 to do. Again, no matter whnt style 

 of frame hive is adopted, many seem 

 .to suppose that something must be 

 done in the time of the houey harvest, 

 and when the sections are on the 

 hive, to clear the brood combs of hon- 

 ey to give the queen room to lay, else 

 the bees will crowd the queen so that 

 she will not have room enough to lay 

 eggs so as to keep up the population 

 of the colony sufficient for the best 

 results. Not long ago I saw an ar- 

 rangement advertised to swing the 

 surplus arrangement up any time for 

 an examination of the brood combs, 

 to see if the queen had room enough 

 below to lay in. 1 have been a care- 

 ful observer for tAventy-five years and 

 find that when bees are at work best 

 in sections there will be very little 

 honey in the body of the hive, if the 

 hive has the right size of brood cham- 

 ber, during the early or white honey 

 harvest, .which is the one that the 

 bee-keeper is the most anxious about. 

 But should some honey accumulate in 



the brood combs, it would be a doubtful 

 expedient to use the extractor on the 

 combs below, and I have reason to 

 know that if any one expects to se- 

 cure a large yield of comb honey and 

 use the extractor on the brood combs 

 at the same time, they will not realize 

 their expectations. After the bees 

 get thoroughly at work in the sections 

 let the brood combs alone, and you 

 need have no fears about the queen's 

 being crowded. If honey accumulates 

 in the combs before the bees are fair- 

 ly started in the sections, have no 

 fears, for as soon as they go to work 

 above they will carry it all up into 

 the sections and make abundant room 

 for the queen. For instance: I have 

 repeatedly hived swarms on nine Gal- 

 lup frames well filled with honey, all 

 capped over, putting on the sections 

 at once, and in from fourteen to 

 eighteen days, (if honey is to be had 

 in the fields] had nearly every pound 

 of it put in the sections and the combs 

 filled with brood. Once more: If you 

 let the first of prime swarm issue from 

 a hive and keep down all after-swarms, 

 by the time the young queen becomes 

 fertile, every available cell in the 

 brood-chamber will be filled with 

 honey, and still no start be made in 

 the sections ; but just so soon as she 

 commences to lay, the bees will com- 

 mence in every section, (if the section 

 room is about fifty pounds capacity,) 

 at once, and I have known every sec- 

 tion to be completed in from ten to 

 twelve days from the time of com- 

 mencing, under such circumstances. 

 Examine that hive in twenty days 

 and you will find as choice a lot of 

 brood as you ever witnessed with very 

 little honey in the combs where only 

 a short time before it was nearly all 



