THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



swarming is scarcely ever thought 

 of, and not one colony in twenty- 

 five will cast a swarra, as all the 

 energy of the bees is bent upon 

 honey gathering. The strength of 

 swarm is kept up by the queen liav- 

 ing all the room she can fill ; con- 

 sequently, the white honey all goes 

 into sections. 



But should a swarm issue we 

 proceed at once to profit by it and 

 hive them so that no time is lost 

 for work in the sections. This we 

 accomplish as follows: as soon as 

 all the bees are in the air, we turn 

 the 'hive clear around so that it 

 faces the opposite direction from 

 what it did ; setting it just off the 

 stand. 



We now place a new hive on the 

 same stand as the old one occu- 

 pied and put seven combs or frames 

 with foundation in it. Take 

 three combs of brood from old hive 

 and put in also ; then place the su- 

 per, or supers, as the case may be, 

 on the new hive, and hive the 

 swarm back in it, letting the old 

 hive remain until towards evening. 

 At that time all the flying force . 

 will be back in the new hive on the 

 old stand. Now open old hive and 

 shake and brush all remaining bees 

 down in front of new hive, when 

 they will all run in. We now have 

 all the bees of the swarra and all 

 left in old hive on new stand. 

 That colony is now done with 

 swarming for the season. Tliere 

 is a strong field force, no combs to 

 build or supers of unfinished sec- 

 tions to fill up. The bees have 

 gained a new impetus b^' swarming 

 and the vvorlc goes on rapidly ; no 

 loss of time, no increase and a 

 double surplus will be taken. 



We now return to the old hive, 

 which is taken into honey house, 

 queen cells cut out, honey ex- 

 tracted, and the brood given to 

 stocks not overflowing with bees, to 

 nucleus, or to artificial increase (if 

 we wish such) or still better, held 



over till next day and a swarm 

 hived on them and treated the 

 same as was the one the day before, 

 as regards stqyers, etc., and so on 

 to the end of the season ; when we 

 find we have had half a dozen 

 swarms, and yet only our one hun- 

 dred stocks in the yard in the fall, 

 the original number in the spring. 

 P^ollovving uj) this method during 

 the season, an extra yield of comb 

 honey can be secured, fully as 

 much, I believe, as of extracted. 

 After July 10, the supers can be 

 contracted to the close of the sea- 

 son, leaving few unfinished sec- 

 tions to carry over. These latter 

 can be extracted and combs kept 

 for the next year. Should I wish 

 increase I should manage my apiary 

 as above until after clover and 

 bassvvood bloom, then divide and 

 let them fill up on fall flowers. 

 Columbus, Wis. • 



For the American ApicuUurist. 



PREVENTION OF IN- 

 CREASE. 

 (number two.) 



JOHX H. Rupert. 



In preventing increase it is not 

 necessary to prevent swarming; in 

 fact, in working for comb honey, I 

 prefer to have the bees swarm, as 

 I think they work better after the 

 swarming im[)ulse is satisfied. 

 When the time comes for putting 

 on the sections look the hive over 

 carefully, cut out all the queen 

 cells, put on the supers and let 

 them alone. Jf they go to work 

 they will soon need more room. 

 As soon as the first sections are 

 finished take ihem oil" and replace 

 with empty ones. With young 

 queens this method will often pre- 

 vent swarming, but when you put 

 on the supers if they have made 

 preparation for swarming let them 



