THE AMERICAN APIGULTURI8T. 



107 



are obliged to advance the price eacii 

 year. The ultimate oiitcoine will he 

 that we cannot afford to use founda- 

 tion at all.) 



After the larger portion of the 

 brood in the [iareut hive has been 

 capped, shake every bee off the combs 

 in front of the swarm after adjusting 

 a trap at the entrance to sift out the 

 drones and young queen. The capped 

 i)i'<)od can now be exchanged for 

 combs of honey from the diffei'ent col- 

 onics in the yard, or it can all be put 

 over some strong stock divided by 

 zinc and the honey extracted after 

 the bi-ood hatches out by the latter 

 metliod ; comb and extracting honey 

 will be produced in the same yard. 

 The combs of honey may be removed 

 and boxes put on. 



Another plan is that given by Dr. 

 Tinker, who is unquestionable author- 

 ity on bee matter which will be thor- 

 oughly understood by I'eadiiig his val- 

 uable little book. 



A grand and very successful meth- 

 od of cutting down increase materi- 

 ally and at the same time securing 

 splendid crops of extracted honey is 

 to raise all the brood and tier-up a 

 story, giving empty combs below, 

 also the one the queen is on ; then 

 dividing the two cliambers with ex- 

 cluding metal and repeating the op- 

 eration after extracting all the honey 

 from upi^er story. Cell-huilding can 

 be practised in all upper stories 

 worked in this manner and fine ones 

 will be built. During June or the 

 clover harvests, cells will be worked 

 out in both cliaml)ers. 



It is poor policy to double up colo- 

 nies that have no intention of swarm- 

 ing. Better push them all to the 

 swarming pitch and do the doubling 

 after they have had their fun. If 

 worked in the right manner a new 

 swarm can be made to store more box 

 honey than a powerful colony that 

 does not think of swarming. 



The term increase does not apply 

 to the number of bees but to the num- 

 ber of colonies of bees. 



We are opposed to liiving two 

 swarms in the same hive when they 

 can both be made to do gi-and work 

 by vamping up with the bees of the 

 parent colonies and at the same time 

 adding vim to all the bees in l)oth 

 hives and cutting down increase all 

 together. 



Swarming. 



We value the queen-traj) more and 

 more each season, Especially this, as 

 we had in our 3'ard several colonics 

 of bees in all sorts of things called 

 "hives." Transferring was in order 

 all through the fruit bloom and up to 

 date it looks as though we would win- 

 ter a few of these bees yet in boxes 

 as they are. 



By allowing after-swarming and 

 then jumping the hives we have l)een 

 able to get most of tlie bees on 

 frames of foundation. vSonie of the 

 box hives have only a hand fid of bees 

 left, but a hive full of honey. These 

 we shall transfer at our leisure. 



By the use of the drone-trap and 

 jumping hives we have weeded out 

 about all the undesirable drones in the 

 yard and before these hybrid queens 

 have time to lay more drone eggs we 

 have a young queen in a'nd the trap 

 comes off. 



If the trap or s warmer is used mere- 

 ly as a swarm catcher it can be re- 

 moved as soon as swarming is over, 

 but when in rearing queens for sale 

 the}' are indispensable the entire sea- 

 son. 



We had an after-swarm containing 

 eight queens ; the trap sifted tliem all 

 out and we hived the bees in the ordi- 

 nary' way and gave them a nice virgin 

 of approved blood. 



There are a thousand and one little 

 knacks that can be applied to a good 

 queen-trap. Mr. Alley has one so ar- 

 ranged that it will acconnnodate a 

 whole swarm. 



A plan that worked first-rate with 

 us several times in a case where we 

 could not get at the frames, was to 

 leave the trap on until the young queen 



