108 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



came out to mate. She finds she can- 

 not pass the zinc, so she goes up 

 through the cone and is trapped. At 

 uigliL the bees will miss her and cluster 

 into and on the trap when they can be 

 hived on movable combs or on the old 

 stand and the queen will mate the next 

 day. If a frame of brood in all stages 

 is given them they will do finely and 

 will not swarm out. By this plan a 

 box-hive can be entirely cleaned out 

 witli no trouble whatever. 



When a large amount of brood is 

 put above a strong colony, large quan- 

 tities of honey will be carrieci al)ove 

 and the bees will soon get accustomed 

 to storing above b}' the time all the 

 brood intlie upper story is hatched out. 



Now I will tell you how a large 

 portion oC that honey can be trans- 

 ferred to boxes if you do not care for 

 extracted hone3^ Simply transfer the 

 super or supers from some hive that 

 has been working well or give them 

 a full case of foundation, a section 

 containing one or two drawn combs, 

 shake all the bees off the rest of combs 

 containing brood and let them run in- 

 to the part containing the hone}' ; put 

 on the caoes and close the hive and 

 if you do not get a nice lull case of 

 comb honey it's your fault. The 

 brood taken away can be tiered over 

 the colony from which you stole the 

 case or a new one started in and the 

 operation repeated. It's a sort of 

 "presto change" and beats feeding- 

 back "all hollow." The bees rather 

 enjoy shifting the honey about be- 

 cause thej^ can work nights on it ; ev- 

 ery bee will be on the field in the 

 morning. 



On the 23d of May, we had quite a 

 heavy honey flow and we caught two 

 hundred large combfuls. We are now 

 having it put into boxes as fast as we 

 can. I took off seventy all capped 

 from two hives on the 7th of June. 

 It gives employment to the bees during 

 warm weather by first securing your 

 honey in large frames if boxes are not 

 convenient and hand3\ The bees shift 

 it into unfinished cases. 



Tlie above all applies to controlling 

 inci'ease of colonies l)y the manipu- 

 lation of brood-combs containing brood 

 in all stages. It would be folly to 

 first put on empty combs and attempt 

 to get them fillccl and transferred, be- 

 cause it uses up tlie bees faster than 

 they corner in. 



We are now perfecting a sj'stem 

 in combination with our micleus man- 

 agement to secuie nice honey in one- 

 half-pound boxes to retail at 15 cts., 

 and at the same time have plenty of 

 uncapped section to give to our nu- 

 clei. 



Notes from the Bay State Apiary. 



V>\ IlENHY ALI.KV. 



Just at this season in the year, and, 

 in fact, for nearly two months past, 

 business has been lively at our a[)iary 

 and at tlie office of the Apicultukist. 

 We have been on the junii) and work- 

 ing fifteen hours each day fin- several 

 weeks, and even then, havt; been un- 

 able to keep up with ordei's and ship 

 goods in all cases as promptly as our 

 customers desired them. However, 

 in this I'ospect we have done as well 

 as other dealers, as, so far as iieard 

 from, all have been nearly three weeks 

 behind their orders. 



First work in the apiary. 



The first work in the queen-rearing 

 apiar}' is to get the colonies in good 

 condition for cell-building. This is 

 done by feeding sugar syrup, contract- 

 ing the entrance to the hives and pack- 

 ing so as to retain all the animal heat, 

 and to prevent the cold from entering 

 the brood-nest. We have but little 

 trouble to keep the bees warm as only 

 double-walled hives are used in the 

 Bay State Apiary. 



Early in May we had a large num- , 

 ber of colonies strong enough to build 

 queen cells, and on May 4th the bees 

 were set to work at reaiing queens ; 

 yet notwithstanding the early start we 



