1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER^ 



335 



the amount of bees and stores, and to 

 know they have a queen. The col- 

 onies will be in my handy hiyes of 10 

 frames of 100 inches each of worker 

 comb, or 1,000 inches of straight work- 

 er comb per hive, and with not two 

 squrae inches of drone-comb in any 

 hive. They will be supplied with 

 combs of honey if lacking in stores, 

 united with others if queeuless, and 

 then covered warmly, and then left in 

 quiet, unless^ something should call 

 attention to some particular hive, 

 when special attention will be given it. 

 After some of the colonies have be- 

 come strong in bees, I will put an ex- 

 tra hive, filled with w^orker comb, un- 

 der them ; this doubling of hives will 

 be done for experiment, to ascertain 

 if this enlarging of brood room will 

 give better results in comb honey than 

 single hives ; but the most of my col- 

 onies will be in single hives, and near 

 the time white clover blooms, as has 

 been mentioned, all strong colonies 

 will be given a super of prepared sec- 

 tions, the section room increased as 

 needed, by putting other cases under 

 the partly-filled ones, and swarming 

 prevented, if plenty of storing room 

 will do it, but no other means will be 

 tried to prevent swarming. 



SWARMING. 



When a colony swarms they will be 

 hived in one of my small handy hives, 

 on eight empty frames, with starters 

 in them ; only the two outside frames 

 will be filled with dummies This 

 will reduce the hive to 800 inches of 

 comb space. I will hive on the start- 

 ers only, provided I do not care to in- 

 crease my colonies, for J know I can 

 get more comb honey by hiving an 

 empty brood-chamber, but if J should 

 conclude I want to increase my colon- 



ies, I will fill the frames with fnl 

 sheets of worker foundation on horiz^ 

 ontal wires, so the foundation cannot 

 stretch at the top and make droncr 

 comb of it ; for, with me, a large cell, 

 however made, is sure to be filled with 

 male brood, and I cannot afford 

 to rear drones in my small hives 

 (they are equally unprofitable in large 

 hives) ; but whether 1 use empty 

 frames, or frames of foundation, the 

 hive will be contracted to 800 inches 

 of comb space. 



The new hive will be set where th^ 

 parent colony stood, the supers will be 

 removed to it, the old colony placed 

 on the vacant end of the double stand, 

 with its entrance toward the opposite 

 direction, and the new swarm hived in 

 the new hive, which will then be giv- 

 en all the cases of prepared sections 

 they can fill until the end of the bass- 

 wood honey season, near the end of 

 July, when all the cases of sections 

 will be removed to the iron honey- 

 house, where the cases will be set on 

 end with one inch of space between 

 them so the air can be circulated 

 through them freely. Here they will 

 remain some 60 days at a high tem- 

 perature and plenty of circulating air, 

 and the honey even in the uncapped 

 cells will become so thick as not to 

 leak, even if left lying on its side. 



If I conclude to increase my colon- 

 ies the parent hive will be removed to 

 a new stand the sixth or seventh day 

 from swarming ; this will reinforce 

 the new colony and increase the yield 

 of surplus honey. 



WHEN TO PUT FN CELl.AR. 



From the 1st to the 15th of Nov- 

 ember is the best time to put bees in 

 thf> c-'^llar in the Northwestern states. 

 We are pleased to have our colonies 



