80 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



If the bees swarm they are to be man- 

 aged as set forth in my new book thus 

 preventing increase. Care must be 

 taken that plenty of section room be 

 provided, else the whole hive is liable to 

 become clogged up with burr-coml)s. 

 The sections may be removed as fast as 

 completed and empty ones substituted, 

 handling four at a time in the wide 

 frames ; or, if a case of sections is found 

 not quite sealed up, it may be lifted to 

 the top of the upper story until com- 

 pleted, and a case of empty sections 

 put down on the excluder. Thus two 

 and often three cases of sections will be 

 needed. By raising up the sections just 

 before the combs are sealed to the top of 

 the upper story, the brood board is not 

 necessary, but in this case we shall get 

 the story full of honey as the brood 

 hatches out. This honey, however, will 

 be available for wintering or it may be 

 extracted. I generally leave it for the 

 bees, but often extract a part of the 

 combs. If we leave it we are always 

 sure of the necessary stores for winter 

 without fall feeding ; provided we leave 

 the queen excluder on the first story. 

 After removing the sections at the close 

 of the harvest we place the full story 

 of honey down upon the excluder. In 

 this manner we compel the economical 

 use of the honey left the bees ; but if 

 we take away the queen excluder at the 

 time of removing the sections and bring 

 the two or more stories of the hive to- 

 gether, the queen will go into the upper 

 story and the result will be brood in all 

 of the stories and so much honey will 

 be consumed that the colony may need 

 to be fed for winter in case of failure of 

 the fall flowers, which would not be the 

 case if the excluder had been left in 

 place and the queen confined to the 

 lower story. To be profitable, bees 

 must be self-supporting, and we can ill 

 afford to be obliged to feed for winter. 

 But with a large brood-nest full of honey 

 at the close of the harvest, as we have 

 heretofore managed, we are sure to have 

 a great waste of the stores in unneces- 

 sary brood rearing. After the first of 

 June one story of the Nonpareil hive is 



ample for brood-rearing the balance of 

 the season even where fall honey flows 

 are the rule and not the exception as in 

 most localities. And it will be found 

 that on the first of October, the colony 

 will have as many bees as where the 

 queen is not limited in brood-rearing 

 during the latter part of July and Aug- 

 ust when the colony is disposed to rear 

 almost as much brocd as in the great 

 brood rearing month of May. 



On the first of October or thereabouts, 

 the excluder must be removed. Should 

 we forget it, we shall be sure to lose the 

 queen as the bees in the course of the 

 winter all go up into the upper story, 

 leaving the queen alone below the ex- 

 cluder. 



BURR-COMBS. 



One of the remarkable features of this 

 new management first made known 

 through the columns of the Api, is the 

 fact that it almost entirely obviates burr- 

 combs with top bars one-inch wide and 

 f thick. But if we place the sections 

 on top of a two-story hive or if we hive 

 a swarm in one story with a case of 

 empty sections, we are sure to get many 

 burr-combs. After hiving a swarm in 

 a single story, it is best to take a case 

 of sections in which the bees are well at 

 work from the parent colony, and place 

 over the queen excluder on every swarm. 

 If one cannot be taken from the parent 

 colony, take one from any colony in the 

 apiary, taking bees and all and place 

 upon the swarm just after hiving. As 

 tending to prevent absconding I regard 

 it fully as good as a frame of brood, but 

 it has been my practice to put Alley's 

 queen trap before every swarm hived for 

 two days, as a precaution against possible 

 absconding, arranging the trap so the 

 queen can return to hive as often as the 

 bees may swarm out. The case of sec- 

 tions containing partly-built combs pre- 

 vents the building of burr-combs below 

 the queen excluder, and not only saves 

 much labor in cleaning it up, but when 

 we want to examine the broodnest, we 

 can readily do so without the disagreea- 

 ble operation of tearing off burr-combs. 



