212 



TEE AMERICAN APICULTUUIST. 



square incliesof brood comb 40,000 work- 

 ers every twenty-one days requiring tliat 

 the queen sliould lay an average of nearly 

 2000 eggs a day. It is said tliat a good 

 (jueen may lay ^5000 eggs a day, but we 

 Unow perfectly well tliat if they can l;iy 

 that many in a day, tliey do not keep it 

 up for many days at a time. Such being 

 the case, there will often be limes that 

 (jueens may lay 3000 eggs a day for sev- 

 eral days, even in 830 square inches of 

 comb. Thus it will be seen that if all the 

 surplus honey is placed within easy reach 

 of the bees (and they naturally place it 

 above the brood) it is practical to have i\ 

 brood-chamber for brood alone. Again, 1 

 have had some of the largest swarms that 

 I have ever seen issue from these small 

 brood-chambers that had only section su- 

 pers over them. Nor is there any trouble 

 to get these large swarms early if the 

 brood-chambers are protected by proper 

 protecting in early spring. 



The new management 



of bees, after all colonies are built up 

 strong, begins with the swarming. The 

 principle involved is one well-known and 

 generally acknowledged, and is as follows : 

 It is the instinct of bees to swarm and 

 multiply in numbers of colonies. It has 

 not so far been, and probably never will 

 be, prevented when the conditions for it 

 are favorable. As a rule the colonies that 

 divide up their working forces by swarm- 

 ing do not make as much surplus as those 

 that do not swarm. It follows that a 

 system of management that will prevent 

 division without checking the working 

 order must give the largest returns. This 

 result we secure by taking the brood from 

 every colony that swarms and placing it 

 over the queen-excludmg honey-board of 

 another colony able to care for the brood 

 that has not swarmed. The swarm of 

 course is hived on the old stand and the 

 supers transferred from the old to the new 

 hive. The new brood chamber may have 

 frames jnirtly fllled with foundation or 

 empty combs left over from the previous 

 season's use. The bees remaining on the 

 combs in the old l)rood-chamber are shaken 

 OH" the combs anil allowed to go in with 

 the swarm. The brood is then taken away 

 as above stated, and the supers of the 

 colony to which it is given are placed up- 

 on it. All colonies that swarm are treated 

 the same. Thus, all bees of every colony 

 will be kei)t together so that the 



Prevention of increase 



is ettcctual, and yet the bees are allowed 

 to swarm as much as Lliey tlosire. The 



placing of brood with queen cells upon an- 

 other colony does not cause it to swarm, 

 because the old queen below is not aware 

 of the cells above ; but if the cells ai'e not 

 wanted they may be cut oft' when shaking 

 oft' the bees. If the honey-board is not 

 placed between the brood-chambers and 

 the cells are liot cut out a swarm will is- 

 sue very soon. 



This management gives an increase of 

 brood-combs up to a certain point, after 

 which all swarms would I)e hived on emp- 

 ty combs, when the product might be 

 nearly all comb honey in sections or all 

 extracted as desired. There will be always 

 enough honey secured in brood-combs to 

 winter every colony, so that the feeding 

 of sugar will be rarely required. 



The surplus combs or combs of honey 

 are piled up in the brood- chambers on a 

 few colonies to protect them from the 

 moth. In October, the combs not required 

 for winter use are piled up in brood- 

 chambers and left out-of-doors all winter, 

 the only pi'otection required being against 

 mice. The cold of winter will destroy all 

 moth larvte and eggs in the combs till they 

 can be used again. 



I shall claim the credit of intioducing 

 this new system of management to bee- 

 keepers which is made eminently practi- 

 cable through the use of my improved 

 wood-and-zinc queen-excluding honey- 

 board. 



I am aware that it is not a new thing to 

 place combs of brood in the supers of 

 colonies, but I shall claim that no one up 

 to the present time has reduced to a sys- 

 tem, and made a practical success, the 

 new system of management here made 

 pul)lic and presented at the late meeting of 

 the International Bee Society at Colum- 

 bus, O., for the first time. 



The queens may be clipped or not as is 

 desired. I do not clip \\\y queens but if I 

 lived in the country near timber I certainly 

 should. Here I have the New Philadel- 

 phia water works with loO lbs. pressure 

 in the hose to shower down any swarm 

 disposed to go oft". 



A stori lying hive operated on the plan 

 here given has advantages that no other 

 has. JNIy experience with them two years 

 ago led me to predict in an essay reail at 

 the Columl)Us Convention last winter, that 

 a storifying hive would be the hive of the 

 future ; and after the experience of the past 

 season I am more than ever satisfied that 

 this new management will be revolutionary 

 in our methods. 



The size of the brood-frames used is 

 seven inches deep by seventeen inches long 

 and it is a simple hanging Langstroth 

 frame in a very plain and cheaply made 

 brood case. Eight frames iu"c used in 



