THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



129 



slioiilcl liiive their queens removcil with 

 one or more siieets of brood and enoiiiiii 

 worl^ers to protect it and be phiced in an- 

 other liive or snnUl receptacle provided 

 for her. All queen cells ohl enough to 

 liatch witiiiTi ninedavs slionid be removed 

 from tlie ohl stock and the remaininii; 

 brood combs pushed to<rether contract ini:; 

 the brood nest that mucli. On the ei^htli 

 or ninth day al'tcr, all cells should be 

 l)roken from the now (pieenless hive leav- 

 iiiii' them hopelessly queenless. In a week 

 or ten days longer the old queen may be 

 smoked back into the old hive. The suc- 

 cess of tills will depend somewhat upon 

 the race of bees kept. When we had 

 black bees there was seldom a failure but 

 as our bees became Italianized the losses 

 were greater. Mr. Crane, one of the best 

 beekeepers in the country, takes this time 

 to requeen the most of his stocks by <riv- 

 \ws them a virgin queen which is usually 

 well received. If the queen is to be 

 changed the old queen can be killed atthe 

 time of her removal and the brood-nest 

 not contracted. The brood removed may 

 also be returned to the old hive or it may 

 be used for nuclei, or put into extracting 

 swarms, or nseil in a variety of ways that 

 may suggest themselves to the beekeeper. 

 No colony should be left queenless longer 

 than twenty-one days, as after the brood 

 has all hatched there may be no empty 

 cells for storing pollen except in the sec- 

 tions. If the queen cells are broken out 

 at the end of seven days after the removal 

 of the queen there will often be another 

 brood of queens reared from the brood i"e- 

 maining. I have never known such 

 queens to lay anything except drone egirs, 

 but they are capal)le oX leading olF swarms 

 or of establishing a monarchy in the old 

 hive that is hard to overthrow. Before I 

 learned that the books were not right as to 

 the time for breaking out cells to make a 

 colony hopelessly queenless I had many 

 such cases and tills is the only kind of fer- 

 tile worker I have ever been troubled 

 with. 



This system of non-swarming works 

 well with us and undoubtedly will do the 

 same in localities havinij- a similar honey 

 flow. In other sections, moditications of 

 the plan may be adopted to meet the vary- 

 ing circumstances. With sectional hives 

 like the Heddon a whole lialf of the brood- 

 chamber might be taken with the queen 

 and retu'rned with the queen atthe proper 

 time, which with us is usmdly near the 

 close of the white; honey harvest. Or the 

 sections might be changed leaving the 

 queen out longer than the twenty-one 

 days. It is saiil that queenless colonies 

 do not work so well but we by this method 

 get extra strong colonies and as much 



honey as by other methods with less work 

 and expense. This method of non-swarm- 

 ing is not, i'(;commended after a short trial 

 for it has i)een worked for several years 

 with thousands of swarms in dilferent bee- 

 keepers' Inuiils and tons of honej^ pro- 

 duced. In answer to the objection that 

 honey produced by queenless stocks is not 

 as choice as that produced otiierwise, I will 

 say that honey so produced took the high- 

 est i)rizeat the Ontennial in ISTH, and la- 

 ter at the Paris Exposition after having 

 been carried across the ocean and exhib- 

 ited in the original packages. 



In the fall we have not found the brood- 

 chambers of such hives any heavier on the 

 average than others, neither have I or 

 other beekeepers discovered that such 

 colonies failed in winter because of too 

 much bee-bread. With reasonable atten- 

 tion we are sure of having no swarms is- 

 sue and I know of no other way by which 

 we can uniformly reach the same result. 



tStarkoille, N. Y. 



Prevention of Increase. 



F. L. Smith. 



DKsrRABiuTY to prevent increase is to 

 be decided by the apiarist, and to do so 

 intelligently a thorough knowledge of his 

 locality is quite necessary. I will illus- 

 trate what knid of locality and under what 

 circumstances it may be advisable. A lo- 

 cality where "honey comes in in moderate 

 quantities, at best, or in one grand rush 

 of short duration. Under the above con- 

 dition it is better to keep the colonies un- 

 divided retaining the whole force at work 

 storing supplies. Again, if the apiarist's 

 time is occupied with other pursuits 

 which prevent his devoting more than a 

 small portion to the apiary, it would be a 

 prominent factor in making the decision. 



During apple bloom the stronger colo- 

 nies may show indications of swarming 

 which can be prevented by drawing hatch- 

 ing brood and giving to weaker ones, 

 helping them to be ready for the coming 

 white clover yield. A frame of empty 

 comb should be inserted in place of one 

 removed. Placing a case of sections on 

 at the same time helps to suppress the in- 

 clination to swarm for a while. But there 

 comes a time when there are in) weak col- 

 onies to strengthen, and, if left to carry 

 out their natural inclination, the owner's 

 visions of a good honey crop will be dis- 

 ])elled unless some method is employed to 

 prevent a division of forces, and that need 

 not interfere or prevent the colony from 



