colonies have in a limited time the most 

 bees and more pounds of honey. I 

 would increase by natural swarms fur- 

 nishing them worker foundation; also 

 increase by having as little decrease as 

 possible. This decrease I would pre- 

 vent, and at the same time improve my 

 bees by furnishing young queens from 

 the best colony I had to those which 

 lacked the qualities of making them up 

 to my standard of extra good. I would 

 increase by natural swarms, and as few 

 of them as possible ; for by artificial 

 swarming we make more increase in- 

 stead of less. 



If bees were high-priced, and I pre- 

 ferred to increase, instead of buying 

 them, I would stimulate my best colo- 

 nies to raise brood, as soon as the 

 weather and the strength of the colony 

 would permit. I would add frames of 

 worker foundation until I had about 20 

 Langstroth frames filled with brood, 

 half of them being above the others. 



If you have a favorite colony you wish 

 to increase, you can give valuable aid 

 by giving it frames of brood, which are 

 coming out from the cells; being care- 

 ful to discontinue this a week before 

 dividing. As soon as the weather per- 

 mits, and your hive is crowded with 

 bees, take away one frame of brood with 

 bees, and the queen from another 

 hive that can spare it, and which you 

 do not wish to increase ; make this new 

 hive strong by using a division board 

 by which crowd the two frames to one 

 side of the hive, and add frames filled 

 with foundation just as fast as they need 

 more room. The space in the hive from 

 which we took the comb with queen we 

 till with any comb, without brood, or a 

 board the size of a frame. On the 9th 

 day we divide, this colony into as many 

 hives (using division boards) as the 

 amount of bees and queen cells will per- 

 mit. Frames of emerging brood may be 

 used to strengthen them. In front of 

 each new colony lean a board ; this will 

 cause the old bees to mark their loca- 

 tion and prevent their returning to the 

 old stand. As fast as these nuclei are 

 crowded with bees add a frame of foun- 

 dation. How far this increase should 

 be extended, depends upon the apiarist's 

 wants, and his desire should be regu- 

 lated by the number of colonies he can 

 handle, by his pasture, by the price he 

 can sell at, and the amount of money 

 he has to invest in hives, artificial feed, 

 hired help, surplus arrangements, etc. 



The method of increase, and how far 

 it should be extended, has given us but 

 little thought in comparison to what the 

 last, and to us the most important, ques- 

 tion has, viz.: How best prevented? 

 For several years we have had as many 



colonies of bees as we wished, but never 

 enough honey. Therefore, our attention 

 has been directed to how to prevent in- 

 crease of bees, and turn this over-pro- 

 duction of colonies into augmenting 

 the tons of surplus honey. Bear in mind 

 that the directions I shall give are suit- 

 able for our location, and not for all 

 places. I do not stimulate in spring by 

 feeding, either in or out of the hive, for 

 by such I would defeat the object I have 

 in view, viz., less increase and more 

 honey; for by artificial stimulating I 

 cause my hives to be overcrowded, and, 

 in consequence, have an increase of 

 swarms to provide hives and surplus 

 arrangements for, and but little, or no 

 honey from the old or new colonies. 



Come with me (in your imagination) 

 about the 15th of March, to " Sweet 

 Home " apiary. You see my hives have 

 just been placed on their summer 

 stands ; they are double portico Lang- 

 stroth hives, having an entrance at each 

 end. The back entrance is entirely 

 closed by one piece of wood, the front 

 is nearly closed by two blocks. As soon 

 as I find a colony strong enough to clus- 

 ter outside, I remove one block from 

 the front entrance, and repeat the same 

 with the remaining front entrance block 

 when necessary, and also with the back 

 entrance block, thereby securing good 

 ventilation and preventing in a great 

 measure the hive from being over- 

 heated. As warm weather approaches, 

 and the hot sun of summer causes the 

 bees to still cluster outside, although 

 both entrances are open, it becomes nec- 

 essary that the hives should be shaded. 

 By giving plenty of surplus room for 

 the storing of honey, and by extracting 

 often enough from those hives we run 

 for extracted honey, will keep them 

 almost entirely from swarming. To 

 give plenty of surplus room in those 

 hives run for comb-honey is not so easily 

 done. To accomplish this we use a 

 double-portico Langstroth hive, which 

 gives us room for four boxes of seven 

 prize sections each, or 28 sections in all, 

 holding about 42 lbs. when tin separators 

 are used. These sections have each a 

 piece of foundation used as a guide, and 

 an inducement to work in the box; as 

 a still greater and earlier inducement 

 we put in the center of each box one 

 section filled or nearly so with comb 

 from which we have extracted the honey 

 the previous fall. In these sections we 

 wish to give them working room at all 

 times, to cluster, build comb and store 

 honey, that the brood comb may not be 

 crowded with honey. As fast as these 

 sections are filled and finished, they 

 should be taken off and their places 

 filled with empty ones. By using worker 



