THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the breeding apartment in one way. Messrs. 

 Bidwell Bros., of St. Paul, Minnesota, arrived 

 at the same result by reducing four hundred 

 colonies to two hundred,— using all the worker 

 comb and all the bees in two hives for one. 

 They thus brought them in the right shape at 

 once. My plan is to use young bees tor tilling 

 hives ; and I commence with a small quantity 

 of bees, for a young queen does not come up to 

 its full capacity at once. As brood increases, 

 I increase the number of bees, yet not so as to 

 have them store honey in the breeding cells. 

 I always insert an empty frame for them to fill, 

 between two that are tilled with brood in the 

 centre of the cluster. By so doing, when the 

 hive is full of comb, every comb is soon occu- 

 pied with brood ; and all the eggs, instead of 

 being laid on the outside of the cluster, are, 

 where they should be, in the centre. 



My old swarms, when once made up, are 

 always kept strong. If I remove a comb, I al- 

 ways insert an empty frame between two filled 

 with brood; and if there is a small quantity of 

 drone comb in the hive, they almost invariably 

 fill the empty frame with worker comb (for a 

 natural swarm usually builds drone comb at the 

 outside, and not in the centre.) 



A swarm made up in the way I make them 

 will be a profitable swarm. They never fail to 

 be so with me. Suppose we make a swarm the 

 way Mr. Quinby directs in his book. While 

 the bees are raising a queen, they build drone 

 comb, which he gets rid of by having it built 

 in boxes. Well by the time the queen is ready 

 to commence breeding, nearly all the old brood 

 has hatched and the cells are filled with honey ; 

 and the old bees that were put in with the 

 combs, are for the most part dead. Now the 

 young bees commence filling the frames with 

 worker comb ; but those frames are at one side 

 of the hive, and as there is some brood yet to 

 hatch, it is there that the queen will be deposit- 

 ing eggs as fast as she has room ; and there 

 too the main cluster of bees will be. If they 

 gather honey as fast as they usually do here, 

 they will give the queen very little room. But 

 suppose they fill the hive with comb and honey, 

 there will not be over one third as many bees 

 in such a swarm in the fall as there ought to be; 

 and I could not warrant it to be a profitable 

 hive the next season. 



To sum up the whole — there must be all 

 worker comb in the breeding apartment of a 

 hive ; and all swarms should "be reinforced and 

 made strong in the breeding season (not in the 

 fall). Auy person that follows the practice ot 

 hcving weak stocks to double up or strengthen 

 in the fall with old bees, will be disappointed 

 and dissatisfied — in other words, will find him- 

 self behind the times. So far as wintering bees 

 is concerned, every swarm that is properly man- 

 aged through the summer, can be wintered and 

 come out in as good condition in the spring as it 

 went in in the fall; and I can make thirty, forty, 

 and even fifty dollars from the poorest stocks 

 that I have had the management of during the 

 previous season. The swarm of which I cave 

 a description in. the May number of the Bee 

 Jouunal, was the poorer one I had under my 

 care the previous summer. I am taking swarms 



from my neighbors, making them into profitable 

 stocks, and returning them for a reasonable 

 compensation ; and I warrant them, it managed 

 as I direct. Some of these swarms had done 

 nothing for three years previous to my taking 

 them in charge. They gave neither swarms 

 nor surplus honey. But this article ? s too long 

 already, and I have not said one-half of what I 

 could wish to say on the subject. 



E. Galltjp. 

 Osage, Iowa. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Transferring Bees. 



It is frequently the case that bee-keepers wish 

 to transfer a whole colony from one hive to 

 another. If the comb has become old from 

 long use, it may be best to change the colony to 

 a new hive. If it is designed to introduce an 

 improved hive, to supersede the old hive pre- 

 viously used, it is desirable to transfer the colo- 

 nies in such manner as shall give them all the 

 vigor of a new swarm, and secure a colony con- 

 sisting of the greatest number of workers and 

 the smallest number of drones. Probably 

 about the time of the swarming season is the 

 best time to transfer them. 



The transfer has been made by driving the 

 bees from one hive to another placed on the 

 top of it ; rapping upon the lower full hive, 

 thus inducing the bees to retreat to the upper 

 empty one. Another plan, adopted by some, 

 is to place the full hive in an empty tub, with 



the empty hive on the top of it. Pour water in 

 the tub gradually, to rise in the hive with bees, 

 and thus drive them into the upper hive. Still 

 another way is to cut out the comb, fasten it in 

 movable comb frames, and place the frames in 

 the empty hive. 



The first is perhaps the oldest method, and 

 may be considered as a rather tedious one. 

 The second method destroys the honey in the 

 comb, and is injurious, if not fatal to the uu- 

 hatched brood. The third method changes the 

 home of the bees, but retains the old comb. If 

 the old comb is cut out of the hive and placed 

 in movable comb frames, to transfer them to a 

 new hive, this mode not only retains the old 

 comb, but that comb is also in a less favorable 

 position than the bees would place it themselves. 



Inquiry. Would not the following plan be 

 an improvement upon the preceding ? 



Wait for the issuing of a swarm. When they 

 issue place them iu a hive with box room for 

 from 100 to 150 pounds of surplus honey. Re- 

 move the old hive and place the new one on its 

 stand. Remove all the combs from the old 

 hive ; brush off the bees before the new hive on 

 the old stand ; and place all the worker brood 

 in a small box in communication with the new 

 hive. Throw the drone brood to the chickens, 

 and dispose of or destroy the queen cells. By 

 this method you secure two, and what would 

 perhaps have been three colonies in one hive ; 

 and can hardly fail to secure surplus honey 

 accordingly. You dispose of a large number 

 of drones that otherwise would have consumed 

 a portion of the surplus ; and by disposing of 

 the queen cells render swarming improbable 



