92 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



April 



they are much stronger; they are in 

 good working order. 



Colonies having swarmed but once, 

 I find, will work nicely after they get 

 their queens, providing honey is com- 

 ing in sufficiently. The Heddon meth- 

 od reduces the parent colony to a 

 mere fraction, which is of little further 

 good that season ; for this reason I 

 abandoned the Heddon method of pre- 

 venting after-swarms long ago. To 

 reinforce my young swarms I prefer 

 to hive them on the stands of some 

 other good colonies not having cast 

 swarms, treating these colonies some- 

 times, if thought best, as the parent 

 colony in the Heddon plan. More 

 colonies can thus be gotten in working 

 order for the basswood flow. I do not 

 suffer any colony to cast more than 

 one swarm. All second swarms are 

 returned after cutting out the queen 

 cells. Should a second swarm unite 

 with a prime swarm while out in the 

 air, I make no attempt to separate 

 them ; but the next prime swarm is 

 hived in the hive having cast the sec- 

 ond swarm. Quite a numbor of col- 

 onies are treated on this plan in my 

 yard during the latter part of the 

 swarming season every year; only, in 

 practicing it. I do not wait for the af- 

 ter swarm to issue, but hive the prime 

 swarms into such hives as have cast 

 their prime swarms five or six days 

 previously. 



Swarms issuing during the main 

 honey-flow (from basswood) I also hive 

 in empty hives on the same stands 

 whence they came ; shake all bees 

 from parent colonies off and in with 

 them; give section cases to swarms, 

 and use brood-combs to build up nuc- 

 lei made during the earlier part of the 

 season. All young swarms are given 



a reduced brood chamber, hiving them 

 on empty frames provided with foun- 

 dation starters (strips f inch wide), 

 never using full sheets. The later the 

 swarms isssue, the more the brood- 

 chambers are reduced, commencing 

 with seven L. frames or their equiva- 

 lent, later on using six, then only five 

 or half-stories. 



At any time, should flowers yield 

 honey to any amount, section-cases are 

 applied to the strong colonies. It is 

 an impossibility to have all colonies in 

 working order all the time ; but since 

 the flow from linden is the more re- 

 liable (with buckwheat to follow), I 

 aim to have all colonies strong when 

 it commences, but also have some col- 

 onies ready any time. In favorable 

 years we may get some honey from 

 sugar maple, fruit bloom and clover ; 

 but only clover amounts to anything, 

 if anything does at all, and I believe 

 it is better to allow the bees to store in 

 the brood-chamber from the first-nam- 

 ed sources to bridge over the different 

 periods of honey dearth. To those 

 colonies that I expect to work in the 

 sections during the earliest part of the 

 season I give only a few sections, dum- 

 mies being used in the cases, with 

 chaff cushions on top. If we can sup- 

 ply sections with nice white comb in 

 them, we are all the surer of the bees 

 occupying, filling and finishing them. 

 Comb foundation I do not use in full 

 sheets in sections at any time. . I feel 

 a good deal like a prominent German 

 bee-keeper who recently said in the 

 Bienenzeitung, " If we should use comb 

 foundation in our comb honey we 

 should soon drive many of the pur- 

 chasers of our honey away from the 

 markets." I myself am not only a 

 producer of comb honey, but also very 



