THE AMERICAN APICULTVRIST. 



1G9 



if I remember rightl}'. that this 

 chatf packing answered tlie same 

 purpose to the liees whicli bed 

 quilts and coverlids do to a man, in 

 which case if a man is "covered up 

 warm enough," as the expression 

 goes, he would be as warm in a 

 zero temperature as in June. 

 Tins looked reasonable to me and 

 after that I set my bees when 

 taken from tike cellar into chaff 

 hives or rough boxes filled in with 

 chaff, sawdust or cut straw, al- 

 ways contracting the hives with 

 chaff division-boards, quilts, etc., 

 to suit the size of the colony. In 

 this way colonies of bees would 

 go right on breeding through cold 

 days and nights, keeping warm 

 and nice till the combs would be 

 full of brood down at the bottom 

 corners, while those not protected 

 would be clustered closely to keep 

 warm with very little brood. I 

 here give credit to Mr. Townley 

 for this plan and think all using 

 it should be willing to do the 

 same. 



As soon as all the combs are 

 filled with brood which were first 

 given them more are added till the 

 hive is full of comb and brood. 

 In adding these combs, I prefer to 

 add two at a time, using one 

 which is empty and one filled with 

 lionejf such as spoken of above. 

 The empty one is placed at the 

 outside and the full one in the 

 centre. Before putting in the full 

 one I break the cappings of the 

 cells by passing a knife over it 

 flatwise, for by this means the 

 bees are obliged to remove the 

 hone}^ and in doing so are stimu- 

 lated to apparently greater activ- 

 ity than by an}^ plan of feeding 

 with which I am acquainted. As 

 the hone}' is removed over to the 

 outside empty comb, the queen 

 fills the emptied comb with eggs 

 which when hatched into larva re- 

 quire the honey brought back by 

 the nurse bees to feed said larva, 

 and as the honey is now being 



carried again, activitj^ is still kept 

 up and the queen now goes over 

 and fills this comb with eggs also. 

 In this way one hive is soon filled 

 with eggs, brood and bees just in 

 time for the harvest. 



Having the hive filled as spoken 

 of, and the honey harvest at hand 

 or just commenced, if we wish no 

 increase from our bees, no time is 

 to be lost in putting on the surplus 

 arrangement, otherwise the bees 

 becoming crowded may get the 

 swarming fever. For extracting, I 

 prefer another hive of the size of 

 the first, but some prefer one of 

 only one-half the depth. As to 

 results there is probably no great 

 difference, but I consider it quite 

 an object to have all hives and 

 frames alike in the apiary. In 

 putting on this surplus arrange- 

 ment I prefer to use empty combs, 

 if possible, instead of comb foun- 

 dation. I also prefer to use two 

 large or wi<le dummies, one at each 

 side, for a few days, so tiiat one- 

 half of the room is taken up which 

 leads the bees along gradually in- 

 stead of thrusting a large amount 

 of surplus room upon them at 

 once. From experience I believe 

 them less liable to swarm where 

 this course is taken, for they seem 

 to bend every energy to till this 

 small, additional room, while, 

 where a large amount is given at 

 once, they are injured should it 

 become cool ; or, if warm, they 

 swarm from being loath to enter it. 

 As soon as the half of the hive 

 given them is partly filled with 

 honey, the dummies are taken out, 

 the combs spread apart and frames 

 filled with foundation put between 

 them. At this stage I would just 

 as soon have foundation as empty 

 comb, for the bees are now ready 

 to work u[)on it, while before they 

 were not. The time for taking 

 out the dummies is when 3'ou see 

 the cells being lengthened out 

 with new comb along the tops of 

 the combs. 



