THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



29 



You certainly can increase the amount of your 

 section honey by uniting two or more swarms, 

 especially in a poor locality for honey, or in a lo- 

 cality overstocked, or in a poor season. But if 

 you are located in a good honey region, and the 

 territory not all occupied, you would probably 

 get more section honey by hiving first sioarms, 

 separately, in full frames of comb or foundation, 

 occupying small brood-chambers. 



W. I'. Henderson. 



As you well know, friend Alley, just sucli a 

 performance as ''Reader" proposes has been prac- 

 tised over and over again, both from practical 

 necessity and for experiment. It will ])robably 

 work Avitli "Reader" just as he thinks it will. 

 He will get a nice lot of section honey, but he 

 will only haveone good colony in the fall ; wliereas 

 if he had hivc<l the swarms in separate hives, he 

 would have liad two good colonies. He can gov- 

 ern liis action according to hisdesi;e for increase. 

 James Heddon. 



Hived separately, with a short honey harvest 

 following, each swarm might do no more tlian 

 fill its brood apartment; whereas, if united, they 

 could'nt well help making "double" tlie section 

 honey. But hived separately, with anything of 

 an extended yield to follow, more surplus would 

 be obtained, and surely the extra colony would 

 be woi'th something. Even to extract tlie honey 

 and convert tlie combs into wax would bring sev- 

 eral dollars with "the right man in the right 

 place." J. A. Buchanan. 



If your locality is one where the honey harvest 

 comes in a sliower of from one to three weeks it 

 may do pretty well providing you remove one ot 

 the queens. Two swarms that go together will 

 sometimes sulk until one queen is balled and 

 killed. But if your principal source of honey is 

 clover, the season lasting four to eight weeks, do 

 not do it, because (1) You will get no more honey 

 in the long run. (2) If your bees are like mine 

 they will be much more apt to abscond as to 

 swarm again in from one to three weeks. 



George F. Robbins. 



Have tested the plan of uniting swarms for 

 comb honej' many times, and always with excel- 

 lent results. I tise a small brood-clftimber, of a 

 capacity tor only 830 square inches of comb, iind 

 find it large enough for two and even three 

 swarms, but I have not succeeded without the 

 wood-zinc honey-board on the brood-chamber. 

 I put on from forty-eiglit to seventy-two sections 

 at once, and if any of the cases be taken from an- 

 other hive with bees and new combs in it, there 

 will be no burr-comlis built in any part of the hive. 

 In uniting be sure to take away all queens but one 

 or a part of the bees may swarm out. 



G. L. Tinker. 



I don't believe you can get double the honey by 

 the above method, but I know you will secure 



more. I managed that very way two seasons ago, 

 and procured from one hive over seventy-five 

 pounds of nice white honey in one-pound boxes. 

 By that metnod, however, the parent colonies are 

 doing nothing but getting strong in bees, and, 

 with the large numbers of field bees that could 

 be brought into play, they remain consumers on- 

 ly. If I did not care for increase, I believe I 

 would r.itlier follow the method of hiving each 

 swarm separately and placing the brood left in 

 the parent hives above the new swarm on the old 

 stand, as then they will be placed so that all can 

 add to the beekeeper's income and amount to 

 about the same. 



If two swarms should cluster togetlier I would 

 hive tliem as you say, and divide later if increase 

 were desired. E. L. Pratt. 



Giving bees a winter flight, and feeding 

 bees in winter. 



By C. \V. Smith, Wellesley Hills, Mass. 

 My bees are wintered on their summer stands, 

 tliat they may have a chance for a flight, when 

 the weather ofl'ers the opportunity. Last Sunday, 

 Dec. S, 18S9, bees were out in full force. To-day, 

 Dec. 15, 1889, the entrances to the hives are all 

 covered with snow, and if they should remain 

 covered eight or ten weeks and after that a warm 

 day comes, would clear out the entrances and let 

 them come out. No nuitter how many bees 

 dropped on the snow— the flight is worth all the 

 bees it would cost. 



Feeding bees in winter. 



I am in the fruit business and in the spring deal 

 in maple sugar, and have so far been able to buy 

 inferior made maple sugar at a low price, say be- 

 low the jjrice of granulated sugar. One season 

 got it at four cents per pound. Whenever the 

 opportunity ofl'ers I buy sufl[icient for my tviiiter 

 and spring feeding, and 1 have never used any- 

 thing else, and as long as I can get maple sugar, 

 — want nothing else. 



I raise the winter toj) packing and cover the 

 tops of the brood frames with the moist cakes of 

 maple sugar (if in judgment the cakes are not 

 moist enough I dip them in a pail of hot water 

 and they very soon will be) leaving just space 

 between the cakes for a bee to pass, tlien put 

 on the enamel cloth over the sugar and the pack- 

 ing on top of the enamel cloth. The natural heat 

 from a good colony will generate moisture enough 

 to soften the sugar so they may take care of them- 

 selves. I feed all my colonies in this manner as 

 soon alter Feb. 1 as I can get a warm day to lift 

 the toi) packing so not to Ireeze them, and con- 

 tinue to feed a few cakes every ten days 

 or so until fruit blossoms, and by that time strong 

 colonies are ready to swarm and weak ones have 

 got themselves into fine coud itiou, 



