222 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



queenless bees, which accession 

 puts them in good working shape 

 again. Of course the old hive is 

 turned back to its first position, at 

 right angles with the new hive on 

 the old stand. 



By these manipulations, I ob- 

 tain my crop of honey from queen- 

 less bees, while the colony proper 

 is employed to furnish the working 

 force. At the end of the swarming 

 season the queenless bees are 

 united with the original colony, a 

 thing easily done, as both hives 

 practically occupy the same stand. 

 But it is considerable work, is it 

 not ? Yes, but it is considerable less 

 work than climbing trees after 

 swarms that you don't ivaiit, and 

 cutting out queen cells, etc., to 

 prevent, after-swarms. 



It is claimed by some that it is 

 best to suffer one swarm to issue 

 from each hive. This will do in 

 cold (;linuites where there are heavy 

 losses in wintering, as the winter 

 losses win act as a balance wheel 

 to increase ; but in the south, where 

 bees refuse to succumb to the rav- 

 ages of " old dys.," and buck up 

 against everything but starvation 

 and queenlessness, where is the 

 thing to end if you are bound to 

 double your apiary every year? 

 No, we must adopt some new sys- 

 tem which puts the matter of in- 

 crease under our control, and my 

 system of producing honey with 

 queenless bees will do it. 



But how about comb honey ? I 

 have not experimented sufficiently 

 in this line to answer confidently, 

 but from what I have seen, I 

 believe that I am going to pro- 



duce comb hone}' with queenless 

 bees. 



They might be worked directl}'' 

 in the cases tiered up on a bottom 

 board, but in that way, they would 

 spoil too many sections with pol- 

 len. Hence I shall work a set of 

 my shallow frames under the 

 cases. As mj' shallow frames, for 

 extracting, are worked in cases 

 the same size of my section cases, 

 they will work all right together. 

 If the shallow frames will catch 

 the pollen, the whole force of the 

 Avorkers can be brought to bear in 

 the section cases, and their labor 

 will be tui-ned to comb honey, ex- 

 cept about twent^'-five pounds of 

 extracted honey taken from the 

 case of shallow frames at the close 

 of the season. I propose hereafter 

 to substitute the cases of shallow 

 frames for the full sized hives in 

 obtaining extracted honey. In 

 this case no extra furniture will 

 be necessary except a " bottom 

 board and a cover." This bottom 

 board is made just as wide as the 

 standard cases are, and about two 

 inches longer. The two extra 

 inches are to furnish an " alighting 

 board." Around the rim of the 

 board, except in front, is a strip of 

 wood f X 8 "ailed fast to the 

 board. The cases set on this ele- 

 vated rim, and thus the "bee space" 

 is formed below the bottoms of the 

 cases. The "tiering-up" system 

 is practised as under the old sys- 

 tem. When all danger of swarm- 

 ing is over, all that is necessary to 

 unite the queenless workers with 

 the brood-rearing colony is to re- 

 store the hive containing the lat- 



