THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



i ■)• 



When a swarm issues the queen is 

 checked at the entrance of the hive by 

 the excluding metal in box A. The 

 worker bees have no difficulty in pass- 

 ing the perforations and going into 

 the air pell mel as they usually do 

 when a swarm issues, but the queen 

 being much larger than the worker 

 bees cannot pass the metal to take 

 wing and join the swarm as they do 

 when no self-hiver is used. When the 

 bees find they have no queen with 

 them they at once return. In the 

 meantime a few young bees have found 

 their queen in box C and all the bees 

 of the returning swarm join her and 

 enter the new hive, thus hiving them- 

 selves automatically . 



If no more increase is desired, place 

 box C onto box A so as to form a trap 

 at the entrance of the old hive. Then 

 if a swarm should come off it would 

 hive itself back from whence it came. 

 At the end of the thirteenth day from 

 the time of the first swarm, the swarm- 

 er should be removed from the en- 

 trance of the old hive so as to allow 

 the young queen a wedding flight. 

 The old queen always goes with the 

 first swarm. Do not look for swarm- 

 ing after the last of July for there 

 will be none, 



Wendam, Mass. H, Alley, 



COMB FOUNDATION. 



Just now there is a good deal being 

 said about the use of comb foundation, 

 and a good many prominent bee keep- 

 ers argue that it does not pay to use it 

 except in very narrow strips. Some of 

 these same people save every particle 

 of white comb, and some that is not so 

 white, and fill the sections with it for 

 bees to store the fine clover honey in 

 for the market. Some have set up the 



claim that such comb is worth from SI 

 to $5 per pound for this purpose. Oth- 

 ers go to the trouble of getting comb 

 built by colonies kept for the purpose 

 in the body of the hive, and then cut- 

 ting it up and fitting it into sections. 

 That looks to me a good deal like put- 

 tering. If your hives and sections are 

 properly arranged the bees will build 

 the comb just as fast in the sections as 

 anywhere else. When comb has been 

 drawn out in the main hive, and per- 

 haps half filled with honey, it is gen- 

 erally advised to extract the honey be- 

 fore putting it into the sections. Now 

 that is just the kind of comb I don't 

 want in the sections. It would certain- 

 ly be better to leave the honey in the 

 comb, but it is a daubing, disagreeable 

 work, at best. Full sheets of very thin 

 foundation are much better and are 

 worth much more per pound for sec- 

 tion honey. Of course for extracting, 

 use full drawn comb, as the comb cuts 

 no figure in the sale or keeping quali- 

 ties of the honey. As to the use of full 

 sheets of foundation in the brood cham- 

 ber, bee keepers are not at all agreed. 

 Many contend that it is both cheaper 

 and better to use only half inch strips, 

 and if full sheets must be used, to 

 place them in the sections and use a 

 queen excluder between. The queen 

 excluder is all right, but narrow strips 

 of foundation in the main hive is con- 

 trary to my experience. It is true that 

 narrow strips are better than nothing, 

 but I find that so much drone comb 

 will be built to make it unprofitable to 

 me, to say the least. Then, too, I find 

 that swarms hived in that way are very 

 apt to become dissatisfied and in aday 

 abscond to the woods. So far I am de- 

 cidedly a " foundationist," but I am 

 open to conviction on this as well as all 

 other subjects. — ( '. H. Dibbern inWest- 

 ern Plowman. 



