250 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



tions until young bees begin to hatcli 

 freely. There is also no advantage 

 gained in stimulating, for the queen 

 cannot enlarge her brood-nest until 

 there are young bees hatching to 

 protect and care for it. Of course 

 many of our swarms come out with 

 hives full of bees, and several frames 

 of brood. Such colonies can bear 

 stimulating and spreading of brood, 

 and will soon be so strong that they 

 can spare frames of brood to aid the 

 weak. If every swarm was equally 

 strong I would not care to stimulate, 

 for if left to themselves with the ex- 

 ception of giving the queen plenty 

 of room, each colony would be 

 crowded with bees as soon as the 

 honey season opened. 



I use a II X 14 brood comb and 

 just as soon as the brood apartment 

 is crowded with bees, the upper or 

 surplus story is adjusted, and having 

 a quantity of empty combs every 

 hive receives its full complement. I 

 have two methods of management 

 during the extracting season ; one is 

 to prevent increase as much as possi- 

 ble and the other to increase by 

 artificial swarming. With the first 

 method I put on a queen-excluding 

 honey-board and extract the honey 

 as fast as the combs are well filled 

 and about half sealed. The swarm 

 will settle itself down to a specialty 

 of honey getting and will seldom 

 swarm unless they have an old or an 

 unprolific queen they wish to super- 

 sede. Young and prolific queens 

 are therefore the ones we try to have 

 in every hive. If the season is over 

 prolific in swarms (as some seasons 

 are) a drone-trap can be applied to 

 advantage. 



In the management for increase 

 and honey, I leave off the queen-ex- 

 cluding honey-board and give the 

 queen full liberty to all the laying 

 space she can occupy. As before 

 stated, we try to have only vigorous 

 queens, and as a result we have many 

 that will fill fifteen of our combs with 

 brood. If the queen seems to crowd 



the second story with brood, I put 

 on a third story filled with empty 

 combs. This extension capacity of 

 a hive has given me a thousand 

 pounds of honey extra in a season in 

 an apiary of one hundred colonies. 

 When I commence to extract I com- 

 mence to increase, wholly by artificial 

 swarming. From every hive that has 

 an abundance of brood, are taken 

 two or three brood-combs with ad- 

 hering bees, being very careful to 

 leave the queen in the parent swarm. 

 The brood is selected with care. 

 The hive contains ten brood-combs 

 and at least six brood-combs with 

 hatching bees are selected for the 

 new swarm ; the other four contain 

 eggs, larvce, sealed brood and honey. 

 These ten combs from several differ- 

 ent hives make a full new swarm 

 immediately, and it is an immediately 

 working swarm ready for a surplus 

 story, if you have an out apiary to 

 which to remove it, so as to retain all 

 of the old bees, a queen cell can be 

 given to it in a day or two as queens 

 can be reared especially for them. But 

 under certain circumstances I prefer 

 to have them rear their own queen. 

 For instance : if the swarm is made 

 early in the season, say in June, a ma- 

 ture or cell queen should be given, but 

 when made later in the basswood or 

 buckwheat season, let them rear one. 

 If a queen is given the young swarm 

 at this time she will immediately fill 

 all available space with eggs and 

 nearly all honey gathered will be 

 used in brood-rearing. If no eggs 

 are deposited for two weeks or more, 

 much honey will be stored and the 

 swarm will go into winter quarters 

 with plenty of honey and young 

 bees, for as soon as the queen is fer- 

 tile she will try her new powers if it 

 is in October. Our first drawing of 

 brood from the old colony can be 

 followed by another drawing in eight 

 or ten days. In our second drawing, 

 brood is taken from the lower story, 

 and eggs and larvae from the upper 

 story are put in their place below. I 



