84 



THE AMEBIC AN I3EE-KEEPER 



May 



and those who want a few of the best 

 cannot do better than take advantage 

 of, or bring about swarming to secure 

 them, and especially the inexperienced 

 in queen rearing. As soon as the colony 

 from which cells are desired is suffic- 

 iently populous to protect it, give combs 

 of sealed brood until the brood chamber 

 is crowded with brood and bees, and 

 feed a little each day if no honey is 

 coming in. When this point is reached 

 fill a hive body with full combs of brood 

 from dilTerent colonies that can spare 

 them, and place the body thus prepared 

 over any strong colony, with a queen 

 excluder between, for eight or ten days; 

 then, just at night, lift it off and jjlace 

 it on a bottom board and put on a cover 

 until next morning, at which time put 

 it on the breeders' hive without an ex- 

 cluder between, and during the day 

 examine the combs thus given, and 

 remove every queen cell, if there beany 

 present. Now feed liberally so as to 

 have this set of combs filled as the bees 

 hatch out, and in ten more days shake 

 the bees from them and place them (the 

 combs) over some other colony, to be 

 used in forming nuclei later on. Now 

 drop back to feeding a pint a day, and 

 evidences of preparations for swarming 

 will be present very quickly, or else 

 there will be quite stubborn cases on 

 hand. As it is less trouble to hive a 

 swarm back than to be continually ex- 

 amining the combs for the first sealed 

 cells to" remove the queen, besides the 

 good effect to follow the hiving of the 

 swarm back, I would in this case clip 

 the queen's wing and allow the swarm 

 to return, except just o<iough of the bees 

 to form a nucleus, to which I would give 

 the mother queen. 



Again fill a body with full combs of 

 sealed brood from other colonies, with 

 adhering bees as well, provided no queen 

 is given, and place it over the swarm ; 

 continue the feeding provided no flow is 

 on, until the swarm again issues with a 

 virgin queen, or queens, as the case 

 may be, and, without taking time to 



hive the swarm, as soon as it starts out 

 be prepared with cages made from wire 

 cloth rolled up, or some kind of a nurs- 

 ery to care for the young queens that 

 will be popping out of the cells, and 

 open the hive instantly and save them. 

 The point of each cell should be stuck 

 in a cage as fast as they are cut from 

 the combs and every liberated queen 

 caged. As soon as this is done close 

 the hive, and again return the swarm, 

 first putting on an entrance guard so as 

 to be able to cage the queen or queens 

 that may be with the swarm. When 

 this is done commence forming nuclei of 

 these bees and combs, giving combs ac- 

 cording to the inimber of queens and 

 cells. The bees having just swarmed 

 will remain where they are put better 

 than they will under any other condi- 

 tions, and especially those to which 

 queens are given instead of cells. 



If one has never had such an experi- 

 ence the excitement it causes is worth 

 the trouble, besides securing queens 

 second to none on earth, so far as devel- 

 opment is concerned ; and I know of no 

 better way to get increase from select 

 stock. 



At first thought, this may seem to 

 take too many combs of brood for the 

 increase, but it should be remembered 

 that it takes bees to form nuclei, and in 

 this case each division is quite a respect- 

 able little swarm of itself, although 

 there are ten or fifteen of them. 



As soon as everything has settled 

 down, the first set of combs that were 

 filled with syrup or honey on our swarm- 

 ing colony, can have the bees shaken 

 and brushed from them and be given to 

 the nuclei that got the least honey in 

 making the divisions; and enough more 

 combs should be added from some 

 source to make all comfortable, and we 

 will soon see a number of colonies build- 

 ing up nicely, with queens that may 

 cause swarming the next season, if the 

 hives are too small to hold their bees, 

 which will seldom be lacking in vigor. 



When left to nature, the cells from 



