14-: 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



August 



full of brood, honey etc. It swarms 

 to-day. We treat it a la Heddon, and on 

 the seventh day we move it, allowinoj all 

 the older bees to return to their former 

 location,- where they will join the 

 young swarm. We now separate it into 

 three parts, placing each of the three 

 half-stories upon bottom-boards and 

 then, giving each a new location, either 

 on top of a colony with an old to-be- 

 removed queen, or by the side of such. 

 Here we leave them undisturbed till the 

 young queens have become fertile. If 

 we have valuable stock we wish to prop- 

 agate from, then, of course, we must 

 keep ripe queen-cells on hand from 

 such, whicii is not very difficult, if we 

 set out for it. Any good colony can be 

 made to raise them a fa Doolittle. These 

 we substitute for their own. As soon 

 as one of these shallow brood-chambers 

 becomes well filled with eggs we move 

 the colony by its side, which has the old 

 queen, away, at the same time shifting 

 tiie super over unto the hive with the 

 young queen. *I also proceed to shake 

 the bees off from half of the combs of 

 the moved-away hive. The aim is to 

 make the colony with the young queen 

 strong, so the work in the sections may 

 not be interrupted. It is well to use an 

 entrance-guard when thus shaking oif 

 bees from one colony to strengthen 

 another; then should, by chance, the 

 old (jueen be among the shaken-off bees, 

 I would detect her and could return her 

 to her own hive, or else kill her and 

 give a ripe cell after a day or so in- 

 stead. If increase is undesirable several 

 of these moved-away colonies may be 

 united and tiered up three or four high. 

 The combs will generally be found 

 largely filled with honey at the close of 

 the season, and those not containing 

 brood may be extracted. If we wish to 

 increase, then all the moved-away colo- 

 nies may be set up separately, the 

 queens may be hunted out (whicli, in 

 these depopulatiul hives, is not a difficuli 

 matter) and ripe cells are then given. 

 At the end of the season we will have 



gained more colonies than we had 

 swarms, and our principal stock has 

 been kept in working order throughout 

 the season. 



In making tlicse changes, substitut- 

 ing one hive of bees for another, adding 

 bees from one hive to another, etc., it 

 must be borne in mind that all this must 

 be done during the honey season, or there 

 would be trouble. For example: All 

 the young swarms I have during July, 

 just before or at the beginning of the 

 basswood honey-flow, I hive on half- 

 story hives — one half-story to each 

 swarm. I desire to renew the queens 

 in these hives: but by the time I deem 

 it advisable to do this work, the bass- 

 wood season is over. I now wait till the 

 buckwheat is in full blast, when I unite 

 a small colony having a young queen 

 with each young swarm colony, thus 

 forming a full colony again occupying 

 two half-stories. ' This uniting half- 

 story colonies is done by placing them 

 one on the other; but of course as we 

 wish to save the young queen, the old 

 queen must be hunted out. With black 

 bees this is not always easy and may be 

 accomplished by use of an entrance- 

 guard or an Hanneman bee-sieve. 



I desire here to remind the reader 

 that Mr. HaniUMnan. of South Brazil, 

 is the originator of the (HU'en-exclnder. 

 although he did not use punched zinc- 

 sheets. In the BraziUiui Biciicuphlegc. 

 April number. 1899, Mr. Hanneman 

 says: "I nuinufacture my bee-sieve of 

 brass wire two MM. thick: it stands on 

 four legs. To the upper part is attach- 

 etl a cloth apron one yard long, making 

 it very convenient to shake in the bees 

 and tying up the sieve." Mr. Hanne- 

 man also condemns the sieve made from 

 zinc with holes punched in as an instru- 

 ment of torture, cheap and very poor, 

 .luue :\. 1900. 



The busy bee leads a busy life; 

 liut its end is very painful. 



— Geo. B. Smith. 



