188 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPEB 



Octohci' 



Iiours, and many a swarm has liccn lost 

 h(»causo no hive was prepared for it. 



My apiary is near an orchard, and. to 

 save climbing; and unnecessary work. 

 I have a nail keg fastened to a twenty- 

 foot pole, by means of which I place 

 tiie keg abont the cluster and. having 

 jarred the bees into it. dump them out 

 before the empty hive, and in ten min- 

 utes have the swarm in their new loca- 

 tion. I find that it pays better to use 

 starters instead of full sheets of b''ood 

 foundation in the br.xxl-fraiiK^s. 



Oakfield. N.V.. .lulv 17. I'.iOO. 



PREVENTION OF SWARMING. 



How it is Accomplished in the Produc- 

 tion of Comb Honey. 



KV .1. W. TEFl''T. 



THE bee-keeper"s life, providing it is 

 reasonably successful, as one in 

 five hundred may be. certainly 

 lias its advantages and attractions. I 

 live where I please — am not chained to 

 a post; my calling ties me to no office 

 stool, I am no man's slave. I appreciate 

 the liberty from town life and rejoice in 

 the freedom of the farm an:l forest sur- 

 rounding my rural home: awaking (-ach 

 morning to ihe innsic ol humm'iig bees. 

 breathing pun^ air and exercising limbs 

 as well as brain. All happiness must be 

 purchased with a price, though bee- 

 keepers seldom appreciate this fact. A 

 p irt of the price in this instance is in 

 thus living in such a way that to amass 

 a fortune would be impossible: j^et. as it 

 is highly improbable that I should have 

 been able to do this in any other pursuit 

 I may claiin to have mad<' the wiser 

 choice in my sidection. I do not wisii 

 the r(niders of Tmk Americ.\x Hkk- 

 KKKi'KH to get th(^ impressioH that I 

 presume to know all about bees: though 

 I am well aware that I cannot afford to 

 keep bees at all unless I know a gre;it 

 deal about them. I know It does no 

 good for the iinpression to get abroad 

 that an apiarian writer receives pav for 

 is writing, tiiough I noti; yo\ir pri>po- 



sition in the .luly number to exchange 

 iloUars and (jueeus for ideas. 



In the .\ugust number .Mr. Doolittle 

 giv(>s his method of presenting swarm- 

 ing, which is capital; though I think I 

 have a better and more simple plan. 1 

 try to gi\e the (jueen ample accomiiu)- 

 dati(uis in a wide, well-ventilated brood 

 chambei'. Experience has taught me 

 that in order to ol)tain the best results 

 1 must keep the bees at work in one hive. 

 Empty combs or frames of foundation 

 given at times, as the queen requires 

 room, is my plan — and it is the correct 

 plan. I never take any brood from the 

 hiv'e, for the reason that it would be im- 

 possible to get the best returns if I 

 should do so, in the production of comb 

 honey. To do this, the brood nest must 

 be in the brood chamber, and not in a 

 top story. I start in the early spring 

 with a good queen, having bees enough 

 to cover eight or nine L frames. After 

 the packing has l)een removed and the 

 hive and bees put in order, I replace the 

 enameled cloth — which had been remov- 

 ed the fall previous — over the frames, to 

 retain the heat. Over this the chaff 

 cushion is placed. I sometimes stimu- 

 late the queen by uncapping some of 

 their stores, or otherwise feeding them. 

 As the season advances I crowd the 

 honey to the outside of the hive, by 

 spreading the brood and inserting empty 

 coml)s. This I do from time to time 

 until 1 have thirteen combs in the brood 

 chamber. Finally I take out two combs 

 of honey and replace with empty combs. 

 By this time — say June :20th — I have an 

 army of workers and brood combs full 

 of brood just before the opening of bass- 

 wood bloom. 



Wiien putting on sections I place my 

 surplus tray * down in front of the iiive. 

 take from the brood chaml)(>r all comb"' 

 containing unsealed bro'od. with adher- 

 ing bees, leaving nine frames of mature 

 brood in the brood chamber. Sometimes 

 I take but two frames from below, leav- 



* This, we believe, is an iipjier story in wlii(!h 

 widi' frames are used.— Ku 



