1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



35 



formed in strong colonies, where there is an 

 abundance of young worker bees ; when capped 

 over, I remove them to a queen nursery. (I use 

 a cheap, simple and easily made one, similar to 

 the one described on p. 242, Am. Bee Journal of 

 last May, by L. L. Langstroth.) 



When hatched I introduce them while very 

 young, and generally without any ceremony, to 

 strong nuclei, composed of full sized frames and 

 leave them there for fertilization, and until I 

 want them for future use. If I want more in- 

 crease of colonies, I will go and take from near 

 the centre of a hive one or two frames full of 

 brood eggs and larvae, with all the adhering 

 bees except the old queen, put these full frames in 

 an empty hive, set it in some new location, some 

 few feet away from any colonies that I take 

 frames of brood from, and fill the spaces in the 

 old stand in the middle of the hive with empty 

 frames. I go to other strong colonies and serve 

 them the same way, until I get my new stand 

 full, except room for one or two frames. This 

 new swarm is set in a new location and without 

 a queen for about twenty-four hours, in favora- 

 ble weather, when most all of the old field 

 workers have returned to the parent hive, and 

 the workers that are left are principally young 

 bees and very easy to introduce a young queen 

 to. I then take from my nucleus a frame of 

 comb, queen, bees and all, and put them in the 

 new stands. By sprinkling them with sweetened 

 water, scented with peppermint, I have no diffi- 

 culty in getting them to accept the queen. 



Thus you see our old stand with their laying 

 queens are driving ahead, their progress has not 

 been marred ; and if they are getting plenty of 

 honey from the field they will fill these empty 

 frames amazingly quick, and our young swarm 

 has only been without a laying queen twenty- 

 four hours. If we want honey we must have our 

 colonies strong with workers, and in order to do 

 this we must have them as near all the time as 

 possible with good laying queens, and then give 

 the queen room to spread herself. I would here 

 remark, that the honey-extractor is a splendid 

 acquisition for giving the queen more room. My 

 nuclei are formed in standard sized hives, with 

 two division boards in each, making three nuclei, 

 one colony working out at front and one on each 

 side, with the fly hole close to the rear end. The 

 sides and ends are painted different colors, and 

 the division boards have large holes cut in them, 

 and covered with perforated tin or wire cloth, so 

 as to keep each other warm. Bees are doing 

 well here. We have had some honey dew. 



E. Liston. 



Virgil City, Missouri, July 1, 1872. 



The past winter was the worst I have known 

 in thirty years. Nine out of every ten hives 

 have died, that were kept in the old fashioned 

 box hives. 



My own bees have wintered as well as com- 

 mon. In those hives where I separated old from 

 young bees they never wintered better. They 

 have endured one hundred and thirty days of 

 confinement with perfect impunity. 



Delhi, Ingham Co., Mich. John L. Davis. 



[For Wagner's American Bee Journal.] 



Management for Luck. 



How shall we control a colony of bees to get 

 the largest amount of surplus honey '? We see 

 from the Natural History or instinct of the honey 

 bee, that they commence about the 10th of 

 January to rear their brood. In the months of 

 January and February, the queen will lay a small 

 circle of eggs in two or three combs. In the 

 month of March, the amount of brood is con- 

 siderably increased, and to a still greater extent 

 in the months of April and May, and in most 

 cases when the last lot of brood is ready to 

 emerge from the cells, or the last three lots are 

 ready to hatch, the queen has all of her brood 

 combs filled up with young brood. What brings 

 on the swarming impulse with a colony of bees, 

 and how are we to control it and cause them to 

 store surplus honey instead of increasing stocks? 

 AVlien the hive is in the aforementioned condi- 

 tion, with all the brood combs filled with brood, 

 and the queen no place to deposit her eggs, and 

 the bees hanging idly in clusters on the outside 

 of the hive, remove your honey boards and set 

 on your honey boxes, not too many at once, but 

 just as fast as you can get them to run into them. 



Then as soon as you get them started nicely in 

 your honey boxes, if the weather is favorable 

 for swarming and honey abundant, go to hive 

 No. 1, and lift out two frames of brood, with all 

 the bees that are adhering to them except the 

 queen, leave her in the old hive ; put two empty 

 frames in the place of those removed, putting a 

 full one between them, and the bees will go right 

 to work to fill up their empty space with new 

 combs, and the queen will have plenty of room 

 to deposit eggs, and will be perfectly satisfied 

 with her home. Now increase the number of 

 your supers and give them plenty of room, and 

 you will increase their energy with a zeal to 

 labor hard. 



By this mode of management you give to your 

 bees fresh newly made combs, right in the brood 

 chamber ; you give them abundance of room to 

 work and prevent idle clusters at the entrance. 



Take the brood combs, taken from hive No. 1, 

 and also take two from hives Nos. 2 and 3, and 

 set them in a new hive, and give thema queen 

 cell, a queen cell just ready to hatch, or a young 

 fertile queen. If you do this in the morning set 

 the hive in the cellar till evening, about sun set, 

 and then set them out on their summer staud, 

 where you expect them to remain. If done in 

 the evening, set them where you expect them to 

 remain. In most seasons, one remove of combs 

 will control a colony of bees, if you have got the 

 right kind of hive ; and in a very good season, 

 when you find they are likely to swarm, you can 

 remove one or two more combs from each hive 

 and still control them. 



The morning following this operation the 

 working bees will return to their old hive, and 

 you can hold the old hive on the storing of honey 

 the whole of the season, if you want to. Now 

 see if you let your hive swarm in the honey 

 season, you mostly destroy the prospect of storing 

 honey for that season. 



