44 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



swarming takes place the new manage- 

 ment given in my book should be car- 

 ried out to the letter. 



I believe this wqw system will be 

 greatly enhanced in many respects by 

 the use of the new swarmhiver or swarm 

 controller, as it should be more proper- 

 ly called, when used in carrying out this 

 new system of management. Friend 

 Alley in giving us the drone-andqueen 

 trap has placed all beekeepers wlio have 

 learned its value under obligations to 

 him and now there is every reason to 

 believe that his new swarm controller 

 will become even more indispensable 

 to the successful apiarist. 



Dr. G. L. Tinker. 



New PI I i la., Ohio. 



ITo be continued.^ 



PREVENTING AFTER SWARMS. 



By the use of the queen-excluder, 

 queen cells can be kept on hand at all 

 times during the swarming season. I 

 have found by experiment that if the 

 queen cells are destroyed as soon as a 

 swarm issues and the colony given a 

 queen cell nearly ready to hatch, or if 

 a virgin queen is introduced no further 

 effort will be made to build cells and no 

 after swarms will issue. The chief ad- 

 vantage of this plan is, the work is all 

 done at time of swarming, and we don't 

 have to keep trace of the hive any fur- 

 ther. 



OLD QUEEN'S. 



I discovered years ago that old queens 

 were a source of annoyance at swarm- 

 ing time. Colonies with old queens 

 are not only persistent swarmers at the 

 start, but the swarms are likely to cast 

 swarms, and the bees are restless and 

 unprofitable till the old queen is super- 

 seded. My plan to settle the matter at 

 once is to remove the old queen when 

 the first swarm is hived. The combs 

 containing brood are removed from the 

 brood-chamber and their places sup- 

 plied with empty combs. A queen cell 

 nearly ready to hatch is grafted into 

 one of the combs, and a queen exclu- 



der, is placed over the top of the brood 

 chamber, and the combs of brood in a 

 hive body is set on the queen excluder, 

 and the swarm is hived back without 

 the queen. The young queen soon 

 hatches below the excluder, and the 

 cell above the excluder has never inter- 

 fered in all my experience. A colony 

 treated in this way makes the very best 

 of working colonies. Besides it is the 

 cheapest way to requeen without dan- 

 ger of '"'after swarms." 



THE USE OF SEALED BROOD. 



In the manipulation of bees, sealed 

 brood with no eggs or larvae in the cells, 

 can be used in many ways to great ad- 

 vantage. Such combs can be had at 

 all times during the breeding season 

 by placing combs of brood above the 

 queen excluder till all the larvae is 

 sealed and the young bees begin to 

 hatch out rapidly. By placing such 

 combs in an upper story over a wire 

 cloth excluder, virgin queens of any 

 age, and very valuable queens on which 

 no risk is to be taken can be introduced 

 without the slightest risk. As soon as 

 enough of the young bees have hatched 

 to make a strong nucleus, they are given 

 a stand to themselves and soon build up 

 to a strong colony. Such combs are 

 exceedingly useful to build up queen 

 rearing colonies and cell building colo- 

 nies, as they contain no eggs or larvae 

 to attract the attention of the bees from 

 their work of building cells from the 

 selected stock given them. 



CANDY FOR QUEICN CAGES. 



I use compressed candied honey tem- 

 pered with powdered sugar. No bee 

 candy that has ever been formulated is 

 equal to my candy for queen cages. 

 Before Mr. Good published his mode 

 of mixing granulated sugar and honey, 

 I used the compressed honey candy, 

 sending Dr. Morrison of Illinois, a queen 

 and he returned me a queen in the same 

 cage without a new supply of candy. 

 G. W. Demaree. 



Cliristiansburg, Ky. 



