1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



277 



and how many you wish to put to- 

 gether, leaving the combs containing 

 the most honey in them to unite with 

 the bees. Have an empty hive or 

 comb basket along with you, and 

 shake the bees off the combs of the 

 first hive removing the combs, then 

 bring up hive after hive that are to be 

 put with this colony, and shake all in 

 the first empty hive together, and 

 when you are done shaking, place in 

 combs of honey till you are sure the 

 bees will have plenty for winter sup- 

 ply, placing a queen in a cage, with 

 them and let the bees release her on 

 the candy plan, or by taking away the 

 covering from the candy, making a 

 hole large enough for the bees and 

 queen to get out when the bees have 

 taken the candy away. Place the cage 

 firmly between two combs so that it 

 cannot fall to the bottom of the hive ; 

 put on the quilt, or whatever cover- 

 ing you use, if any, over the frames, 

 place on the covers, put wire cloth 

 over the entrance, take the hive to a 

 bee tight but ventilated room, let it 

 stay there three days or a week, then 

 take it out and place where wanted to 

 stand for the winter ; or, if you pre- 

 fer you can leave it in this room until 

 you want to put it in the cellar if you 

 live in a cold country where this is 

 needed to be done; just before putting 

 them away for winter, pick a warm 

 day, give them a good fly, then tuck 

 them away in the winter repository 

 and they will be apt to go through 

 O K as any you have. 

 When you put the bees out to fly re- 

 move the queen cage, close up the 

 frames as you want them, and all is 

 over. 



Some may advise you to sell or kill 

 the surplus queens, but 1 would ad- 



vise you to use them in superseding 

 old queens that are occupying some 

 part of the apiary. These young 

 queens are very valuable, as they are 

 just what you need to give your old 

 colonies in the spring, and the old 

 queens are of but little use. 



1 have not, as yet, as I remember, 

 overhauled an apiary of any size in 

 the fall but I have found more or less 

 old queens that need to be put out. 

 Of course if you have no such queens 

 then I would sell my surplus from 

 uniting, to a neighbor or from what- 

 ever source you can find sale, and what 

 ever you get for them is so much gain. 

 But it will not pay a honey producer 

 to sell his or her young vigorous 

 queens at any reasonable price, as 

 there is where success lies, in having 

 all good queens in the spring, that all 

 hives as near as possible may come on 

 together. In uniting, you are to pro- 

 ceed as above till all are united, and 

 you will likely wear a broad smile, 

 the next spring when your bees are 

 put out and they begin work. I 

 would not try to unite my bees when 

 it is too cold for them to fly as I have 

 always found it unpleasant to success- 

 . fully work with bees in cool or cold 

 weather ; to avoid the disagreeable- 

 ness of robbers I would always begin 

 pretty near night and unite a few or 

 as many as I could each evening till 

 all are done. 



The above instructions are for those 

 living in colder climates than this and 

 as I have lived in countries where 

 zero weather came, and used the above 

 plan with good success, 1 am not 

 afraid to recommend them for any 

 country. 



I will submit to my readers the way 

 I manaare weak colonies in this local- 



